


A Tale of Two Princes

by MusicPrincess655



Series: Royalty AU [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alpha!Hinata, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Royalty, M/M, Mpreg, Omega!Kageyama, will add tags as necessary - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-01
Updated: 2016-11-27
Packaged: 2018-08-28 09:43:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 20
Words: 47,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8440795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MusicPrincess655/pseuds/MusicPrincess655
Summary: Kageyama is the younger omega prince of Seijoh, defeated in battle by Karasuno. Hinata is the only alpha heir to the throne of Karasuno, suddenly betrothed to Kageyama to promote unity between the defeated citizens of Seijoh and the new rulers in Karasuno. The only problem? They hate each other. Now Kageyama must adapt to the new and terrfying world of his enemies and Hinata must learn that everything he thought he knew about natures and cultures was wrong.





	1. The Mighty Must Fall

**Author's Note:**

> Time for a new long fic! This will be my project for NaNoWriMo, which I've been very excited to start for ages. New chapters will go up as soon as I finish them, which should be either every day or every other day, as I'll be writing around 2000 words a day to meet my goal. Buckle up, friends, it's gonna be another wild ride!

“Hold the line steady,” Tobio called from his horse beside the lines of infantry. The rustling of shields and spears quieted down, and the cavalry held their horses in check behind him.

The night was quiet around them, barely the chirp of a cricket or the call of a nightingale to break the deathly silence. Tobio stood at the ready with his soldiers to defend his kingdom.

Suddenly, the night was split with raucous shouts. The other army poured from the trees, running full tilt at the shield wall. They smacked against it with incredible force, pushing with their own shields against the shields of the defenders.

“Hold!” Tobio shouted at the infantry, gather his reins in hand. “With me!” he bellowed at his fellow cavalrymen, charging ahead of them. How would they know where to go, how could they trust him, if he didn’t lead them into battle?

He led his cavalry around the edge of their flank, straight for the exposed side of the enemy. They scattered before his horse’s hooves, and he chased as many as he could, driving his spear into them. He couldn’t afford to let too many escape. Yes, his duty was to protect the castle, but he would weaken their enemy as much as he could from here. He wanted this war over sooner rather than later.

When only a few stragglers had managed to turn tail and run back into the woods, Tobio turned to assess the damage. The shield wall was intact; it hadn’t broken even once. His soldiers had held strong. He’d barely lost any of them in the assault.

“We should go after them,” he said in what probably should have been a quiet voice to his advisors, but instead rang over the heads of the soldiers around him. He had no reason to hide his intentions. They’d just won a hearty victory and would win another if all went according to plan. “Hunt them down and kill as many as possible to weaken our enemy.”

“I don’t think that’s wise,” Kunimi replied next to him, looking bored as ever despite the blood flecking his formerly pristine armor. “Karasuno is an old power, and they won’t fall so easy to an untested boy and his new army.”

“Did you see how many we killed here?” Tobio gestured around at the corpses littering the ground. “We beat them easily! We should do the same to those who ran, and those they’re running to.”

“I agree with Akira,” Kindaichi, the other advisor, cut in nervously. He’d always been timid, fidgeting. It grated on Tobio’s nerves. He was a soldier, he should hide his fear on the battlefield. “They sent soldiers we could easily defeat, and not nearly enough to take us by sheer force. I think they want us to follow into a trap.”

“Surely they wouldn’t send so many to die if that was their plan,” Tobio countered. “They have a limited number of troops so far away from their homeland. Besides, the sooner we end this, the sooner you can go back to hiding in the castle and Kunimi can go back to sleep. After all, he’s too lazy to follow up. He always has been.”

“That doesn’t make us wrong,” Kunimi snapped, his jaw set. “I say this is a trap and I say it’s suicide to go into it blind. At least send scouts before you go rushing in like a madman.”

“That’ll lose us valuable time,” Tobio argued. “We have to go now if we’re to keep the advantage of surprise.”

“But…”

“I am your prince. You have my orders. Match me, keep up with me!” Tobio commanded. He turned to face his soldiers. “Chase them down! We’ll drive them from our kingdom and return to our homes!”

A cheer of assent went through them all, but Tobio could see some apprehension from the ones that had heard Kindaichi and Kunimi. No matter. They would win this fight and he would be proven right.

He led the cavalry through the forest as fast as possible for the horses to be safe. The infantry plodded along beside him, nearly keeping pace, dodging around trees. He felt a rush. Speed was of the essence, and he was hurtling towards another victory, he could feel it.

Tobio noticed the woods starting to thin ahead and called for his infantry to regroup, reforming as they had been before. He took his place at the head of the cavalry, ready to lead them once again. He centered himself, preparing for the coming battle.

The night split with screams again, but not from the front like he was expecting. Soldiers dropped from the trees all around them, slashing at the infantry and decimating the shield wall. Tobio wheeled his horse around, hoping to rally the cavalry into following him and bringing the battle back under his control, but he saw them scattering under the same assault.

The enemy had completely surrounded them from above before they’d ever attacked. Tobio gritted his teeth. There was no way to restore his own side to order, but Karasuno was just as strewn as his own soldiers were. If he could kill enough of them, even get to the commander, the fight wasn’t lost yet.

He rode forward towards the man sitting on a horse calling commands, clearly the leader. He adjusted his grip on his spear. If he could just get close enough, he could throw with enough accuracy to take the man down.

He felt a _whoosh_ of air beside him and barely had time to sweep his spear up to stop the sword from slashing across his face. The spear was ripped from his hands, and he fell from his horse.

Rolling, he landed in a crouch and drew his sword in the same motion. Grabbing a fallen shield from a dead infantryman, he prepared to defend himself. If he went down, he would go down fighting, bringing as many enemy soldiers into hell with him as possible.

He blocked a swing from a sword, thrust his own forward into the weak spot on the armpit, relishing in the scream of pain that brought. He drew back, trying to get to an edge so he could forget watching his back and focus on the fighters in front of him.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kindaichi and Kunimi fleeing the fight into the woods, running away without a backward glance.

“Cowards!” he screamed after them, but he couldn’t deal with them now. He had too many other people that needed killing in front of him.

He slashed his sword again, disarming the next soldier and kicking them to the ground, where he drove his sword into their neck. He lifted his shield to block yet another assault, killing that soldier as well.

He started to get lost in the battle haze. Realistically, there was only so much longer he could keep this up. His left arm ached from holding the shield against assault after assault, his right arm burned from the effort of swinging his sword again and again. He was still lost in the fury of battle, but he could feel the fatigue starting to weigh on his body.

_He was going to die here._

That was the first time the thought really hit him. He was deep in enemy fighters, surrounded on all sides with no hope of backup. He would give out eventually, as all warriors must, and when he did they would kill him. The most he could hope for was an honorable death with the bodies of his fallen enemies surrounding him. Maybe if he could kill enough the castle guard could still hold strong.

A spear drove into his right arm, and he screamed, dropping his sword. He lifted his shield, but there wasn’t much he could do now without a weapon and with a useless right arm. If he could find another weapon, maybe he could fight left handed and take a few more before he went down for good.

He saw his opportunity when he felt another sword under his foot. He launched his shield at the soldiers in front of them, knocking them off their feet as he grabbed for the sword with his left hand. He whipped it up, slashing clumsily at one and managing to kill him through sheer desperation alone before that too was taken from him. Before he could do something truly desperate like lunging for armed soldiers with his bare hands, a sword was lifted to his throat.

He froze.

“That’s quite enough from you, Kageyama-sama,” the other soldier taunted him. He was a tall alpha, though not as tall as Tobio, eyes burning like fire and teeth suspiciously sharp behind his helmet. “You’ve caused enough trouble haven’t you? Quite the soldier from an omega, huh?”

Tobio lifted his chin and refused to speak. If he died here, he would die with dignity, not begging for his life.

“Ryuu, that’s enough,” a softer voice reprimanded. The soldier with a sword to Tobio’s throat, Ryuu, turned a little to face the voice. “We’re under orders to keep the princes alive and to keep from killing as many Seijoh citizens as possible. The king wants an empire, not the shattered remains of a broken people.”

“Yeah, yeah, Chikara, ruin all my fun,” Ryuu grinned. “I may be under orders to keep you alive, Kageyama- _sama_ , but your days of being a prince are _over_.”

Tobio refused to acknowledge him. He was instead thinking of the castle he’d promised to protect, probably overrun at this point with no outer army to defend it and only the castle guards to protect it from within. He thought of his brother, hugely pregnant and tucked away in what they thought was safety. He hoped all the soldiers remembered their orders to keep both princes alive, because if anything happened to his brother…

He had to make this right, somehow. He’d lost the kingdom of his people to invaders, and he had to fix that. For now, though, he could only wonder what torture would be waiting for him back in Karasuno as his hands were roughly bound to a horse and the reins tied to Ryuu’s saddle.

He bit his lip and stared at the saddle in front of him. He refused to cry. None of the enemies around him would be allowed to see him cry.

He would avenge himself and his people. This he swore on all the gods.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shouyou meets his new mate to be, and things go less than smoothly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow. It's 4 days into November and I'm already behind. I'll be writing like crazy this weekend to make up for it, so stay tuned for that!

Shouyou skipped along, singing to his sister perched on his shoulders. At this height, she would come up above their parents’ heads, though they were both tiny. As an omega, Natsu would probably remain tiny for the rest of her life, but Shouyou still held hope he would grow taller. He was an alpha, after all, and still young enough that he might grow someday.

The fact that he was almost nineteen didn’t deter him. He could still get taller.

“Shouyou-sama,” a brash voice called respectfully from the door. Shouyou turned to see Tanaka, one of the lieutenants in his father’s army and an old friend of his, grinning at him from the door.

“Tanaka!” he cheered, lifting Natsu from his shoulders to place her on the floor before running to his friend. “You’re back from the war!”

“War’s over,” Tanaka told him. “We beat Seijoh, no problem! Just depend on us, your soldiers, and we’ll get you through.”

“Will you teach me how to be a soldier?” Shouyou asked. He asked every time he talked to Tanaka, and every time he got the same response.

“Sorry,” Tanaka shook his head. “The queen still says no.”

Shouyou hung his head, though he knew it wouldn’t do any good.

“Cheer up!” Tanaka said, waving his arms in front of him. “I can’t teach you how to fight, but I didn’t come here just to brag about the war. I’ve got a present for you. Well, the king and queen do, anyway.”

“A present?” Shouyou perked up. “What is it?”

“You’ll just have to come with me.” Tanaka winked. “See you later, Natsu-sama.”

“Bye bye.” She waved clumsily with her stubby toddler arms. She turned back to her toys, the two of them already forgotten. Shouyou followed Tanaka eagerly.

“You can’t give me any hints?” Shouyou needled. Tanaka was good about obeying the king and queen, but he’d made no secret of his soft spot for Shouyou. Sometimes Shouyou could get him to bend the rules, just a little, just for him.

“Nope!” Tanaka smirked. “You’ll see soon enough, so quit asking. We’re almost there.”

Tanaka led him to the entrance to the throne room behind the thrones, so he could enter behind his parents. His mother stood to meet them, brown eyes meeting Shouyou’s own.

“I need you on your best behavior for this, hmm?” the queen said, smoothing some of Shouyou’s unruly hair down. He tucked his own silver hair behind an ear. “This is important.”

“Tanaka said you had a present for me?” Shouyou asked. His mother sighed, turning a glare to Tanaka.

“That’s not what this is at all,” he sighed. “You’ve heard about the war? How we won?”

“Yep!”

“It’s not quite over yet.”

“What? But we took their castle. Their king died in battle. We captured both their princes. It’s over. We won.”

“The people of Seijoh aren’t happy about being taken over,” the queen sighed. He flipped his hair, dislodging it from where he’d just tucked it away. “We have to give them something to believe in us. Otherwise they’ll rebel.”

“Speaking of the princes, Ennoshita, bring him,” the king called out.

“Daichi wait!” the queen hissed, but it was too late. Ennoshita was already pushing a tall boy across the floor. The boy flinched away from the touch, and when he got closer, Shouyou understood why.

The sweet floral scent, something like jasmine and nothing at all like Shouyou had ever smelled before, marked the boy as an omega. And unusually tall omega, true, but an omega just the same. He was tall, taller than even the king, his hair was black, and when he drew to the foot of the dais Shouyou could see his eyes were a dark blue.

He fixed his eyes submissively away from all of theirs. Shouyou noted that his right arm was in a sling, held carefully close to his body. He wondered what had happened.

“Shouyou, this is Kageyama Tobio, younger prince of the kingdom of Seijoh,” the king said, motioning Shouyou forward.

Shouyou stepped around the omega, watching him draw in on himself. He clutched his arm carefully, pulling it closer. Had he been hurt when they’d taken the castle? Granted, it would be easy to excuse something done in the heat of the moment, but Shouyou knew the soldiers had been under orders not to harm the princes. The poor thing must have been terrified, his home invaded and his old life gone. He’d probably been in the castle in safety with the other omegas. To have that turned on him almost seemed cruel, especially with his injury.

Shouyou tried a smile. He would try to reassure Kageyama that he was safe now. No one would harm him here. Then, his mind finished putting the pieces together.

“Is he for me?” he asked, glancing up at his parents, then back at the omega. Expecting the same submissive stare that had been there, he was shocked when those blank eyes turned icy.

“I’m not a toy,” he snapped. “I’m a person, and I never agreed to this! Who would want this tiny alpha, anyway? You can’t force me to mate him, and you can’t keep me here forever!”

He stormed off, Ennoshita starting to run in his wake.

“Let him go,” the queen called, and Ennoshita halted. “While inside the castle, he’s not to be treated as a prisoner. I’ve made these orders clear and I expect everyone to follow them.”

Shouyou turned, a little shell shocked after the outburst, to face his parents. The king looked bemused but the queen just looked resigned. He put a hand to his forehead.  

“That could’ve gone better,” the king said. The queen turned on him.

“This is what I was trying to avoid, Daichi,” he snapped. “I needed more time to talk to our son, so he wouldn’t do something like this!”

“What did I do?” Shouyou asked. He wasn’t sure where all that anger had come from in the other boy. He’d asked a simple question, one the omega must have been expecting. Why else would he be brought to the throne room before the king, queen, and prince? Besides, he’d tried to be kind, tried to calm the omega.

“Nothing wrong, if he’d been a Karasuno omega,” the queen sighed. “Seijoh omegas are proud. They’re not so easily given to mating as a Karasuno omega would be. They have to be approached carefully, courted, before they’d even consider mating. Of course, he’s probably angry and scared in this new place far from home. I wanted to explain that you had to tread gently around him. This won’t happen right away.”

“But aren’t omegas supposed to be submissive to alphas?” Shouyou asked. It was a legitimate question. All the omegas he’d dealt with had been submissive nearly to a fault, and they’d all been flattered by the attention of the prince.

“In Seijoh, omegas choose who and when to mate,” the queen said. “They hold the power. If we were in Seijoh, and you’d done that to him, it would have been considered a great offense.”

“So what do we do now?” Shouyou asked. He’d never expected an omega to be so much trouble, and after he’d tried to be nice, too!

“First of all, you have to go talk to him,” the queen said firmly. “Try to befriend him and see if he’ll forgive you for insulting him. I know you didn’t mean to,” he sped on as Shouyou opened his mouth, “but as far as he’s concerned he’s been insulted. This is a new place to him, and the only friends he has are his brother and his brother’s mate. He won’t be happy lonely like that.”

“Isn’t the royal family name in Seijoh Oikawa?” Shouyou asked, the question only now occurring to him. “You said his name is Kageyama Tobio.”

“His older brother is called Oikawa,” the king broke in. “They’re half siblings with different mothers. Since the older brother was first in line for the throne, he went by the royal family name while Kageyama took his mother’s family name. Seijoh citizens almost never call each other by their given name, and this was a way to distinguish between the two princes.

“Truthfully, I’d have preferred to mate you with the older brother,” the king went on. “He’s older, has the more direct claim to the throne of Seijoh, and seems much more tractable. However, he’s already mated and very pregnant. Luckily, the younger son is unbonded and available.”

“Highness, if I may speak,” Tanaka ducked his head. Shouyou had almost forgotten he was standing there. The king gestured for him to continue. “I’m not sure about this pairing. We saw how badly it went here, but even if it hadn’t I worry for Shouyou-sama’s safety. He killed ten of my men after he was knocked from his horse, and those are just the ones I know about. He was near feral at the end. He could easily hurt Shouyou-sama.”

“He was in the battle?” Shouyou broke in.

“Yeah, he was leading one of their cavalry units, he was insanely good,” Tanaka complained. “Even when we surrounded him and threw his men into chaos he was still able to do a lot of damage. I think he was supposed to keep us from getting to the castle but we managed to draw him into a trap.”

“But…he’s an omega,” Shouyou said. “Why would he be on the battlefield at all? And leading people?”

“I told you that Seijoh omegas were proud,” the queen said. “They fight in battle just like alphas and betas do. I’ve heard of Kageyama’s skills with a sword. He’s one of the best they’ve ever had. It would be good to have that kind of skill on our side.”

“That’s what worries me, highness,” Tanaka told him. “He could kill Shouyou-sama before any of us could ever get there to protect him, and Shouyou-sama isn’t really prepared to defend himself.”

“Kageyama won’t have any weapons here in the castle,” the queen countered, but his eyebrows were drawn together with worry. The king noticed.

“Koushi,” he said gently. “I know you don’t like the idea, but he’s eighteen now. You can’t shelter him forever.”

“I can try,” the queen huffed, but he seemed to give in to whatever the king was talking about. “Tanaka. Do you have any men you could spare to train him in swordsmanship?”

Shouyou sucked in a gasp. Was his mother finally yielding, finally allowing what he’d been begging for years?

“Asahi could do it,” Tanaka offered. “He needs a break after the war, nervous guy. He’d be more than happy to teach Shouyou-sama how to wield a sword.”

“Then I’ll allow it,” the queen relented, and Shouyou cheered. “That doesn’t mean I want you running off to the battlefield, Shou!”

“And that’s not your only concern,” the king spoke up. He leaned forward, fixing his eyes on Shouyou. “You have to talk to Kageyama too. We need him bound to us somehow, especially if we’re keeping the older prince and his mate here as well. The people of Seijoh are not happy, and there’s already talk of a rebellion. We need to tie their royal family to ours, and you’re our only hope for that.”

“Be gentle with him,” the queen suggested. “Treat him with the same respect you would another alpha of your standing. He is a prince too and deserves that much. Try to be his friend before you try to court him. He’s probably lonely and scared. Use that.”

“You’re scary, Koushi,” the king said, shivering. The queen tossed his head.

“We don’t have time for me to be otherwise,” he scoffed. “We need to use what we have, and quickly. I’d rather resolve this business with Seijoh before we come to blows again. We have other things to worry about than a rebellious people.”

Shouyou nodded, turning, knowing he was dismissed. He let his mind wander, thinking of ways he could befriend Kageyama. He’d made a few friends over the years, mostly the people surrounding his mother and father as well as some of the servants. He wasn’t bad at making friends, being friendly, not by a long shot, but something told him that wouldn’t work as well with Kageyama.

Kageyama wasn’t like any omega Shouyou had ever encountered before. He was icy, closed off, and mean. Shouyou had almost no things he could even think of to talk to the omega about, which was a first for him.

_I’ve heard of Kageyama’s skills with a sword._

Shouyou felt a grin break across his face as the idea dawned on him. He turned back, racing to find Tanaka. How soon could he start meeting with Asahi?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next: a visit to a very pregnant Oikawa


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enter: a very pregnant Oikawa

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A note for something I forgot to mention last chapter: King and queen and mother and father are all genderless words in this au. Mother is the person who carries the child, male or female, and father is the one who got the mother pregnant, male or female. King is the one who holds the power, while their mate is usually called queen although can be called by other names based on preference.   
> For rules about biology in my omegaverse, I do have a model called [ Rules of the Verse ](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6961606) you can check out.

Tooru sighed and rubbed his back. He was five months pregnant, which meant he was just big enough to make their journey from Seijoh to Karasuno a hardship. It also meant the need to pee kept him jumping up and running to washroom connected to their bedroom more often than was really convenient.

He whined a bit as he rubbed again at his lower back. His hips especially were starting to widen with the growing of his belly, and now he had to deal with shooting pains on top of everything else. He allowed himself one more minute in solitude to try to massage his aches away before he straightened, smoothing out any grimace that might have been on his face. He turned to leave the washroom.

The most important thing right now, he’d decided, was to keep a brave face, especially in front of others. They’d only been here for a few days, and without knowing the king and queen’s exact plans for him, he wanted to keep from giving away anything that could be used against him later. He needed to appear strong, especially as a pregnant omega.

He walked back to his and Hajime’s shared bedroom, easy smile fixed back in place. It wouldn’t fool Hajime, nothing would after so long knowing each other, but Hajime wasn’t the one he was acting for.

Their room was filled with bright colors, much brighter than the muted pastels and darker tones he was used to in Seijoh. Karasuno’s wealth was about on par with what Seijoh’s had been, if the documents he’d read as crown prince were correct, but Karasuno was much more ostentatious with their wealth than Seijoh had been.

He focused on Hajime sitting on their shared bed, and then on Tobio tucked into Hajime’s side. For any other Seijoh omega, it would be a great insult to find another so close to one’s mated alpha, but he and Hajime had been raised with Tobio. Hajime was practically a second brother to him, and Tooru could never consider Tobio a threat like he would any other omega. He could smell the distress coming off Tobio in waves, and took a deep breath. If he’d ever needed a brave face, now was the time.

“Tobio, what’s wrong?” he asked. Tobio wasn’t one for subtlety, and trying to tease the answer out of him like he might for any other person would take hours. He sat on Tobio’s other side, hand on his shoulder for comfort.

“They want me to mate their prince,” Tobio seethed. Tooru sucked in a gasp. He’d been trying to figure out the motive for taking them to Karasuno rather than killing them, but so far he hadn’t figured that for a reason. He’d been betting on ransom to keep Shiratorizawa from attacking Karasuno in retaliation for the fall of its ally Seijoh.

“You just found out?” Hajime asked, tightening his arm around Tobio in response to the rising scent of distress. Tooru grabbed Tobio’s hand where it was clenching in his sling, more to keep him from hurting himself more than anything else.

“They just took me to the throne room and told him. They didn’t even tell me!” Tobio was growing louder. “They treated me like I was a toy.”

“Sh, sh, don’t shout,” Tooru tried to soothe him, tried to stem the rising tide of distress. “We’re right here. They really didn’t tell you anything before they told him?”

“No!” Tobio snapped. “Tooru, what am I supposed to do?”

Tooru rested his head on Tobio’s shoulder, trying to keep his own scent stable and calm so Tobio wouldn’t get more upset. Hajime wrapped his arm around both of them.

“I don’t know yet, but you have to be careful,” Tooru said honestly. “Omegas don’t have much power here, and we’re kind of their prisoners here. Don’t blow up at them.”

“I kind of…already did?”

“Tobio!”

“Tooru, hush, he had every right,” Hajime broke in.

“I know, I know, but that’s dangerous,” Tooru said. “What if they’d hurt you? What did you even do?”

“Their prince,” Tobio admitted. “He was looking at me like I was some piece of meat, like I didn’t get a say in what happened. Like I was some gift for him. I yelled at him.”

“They didn’t go after you?” Hajime asked.

“Actually, that makes sense,” Tooru mused. “If they really want you to mate their prince, they can’t do that unless you agree to it. Both people have to agree for the mating to happen, that’s how it works. They’ll probably try not to hurt you.”

“But I don’t want to mate their prince,” Tobio protested. “I don’t want to just be someone’s omega. I don’t want to lose my freedom.”

“Just being mated won’t take away your freedom, but I agree that you have to be careful with this one,” Hajime nodded. “We still don’t know exactly what they want from us and until we do we can’t make any stupid decisions.”

“Why would they want him to mate me?” Tobio asked, and Tooru felt his chest squeeze a little at how despairing he sounded.

“It doesn’t make sense on the surface,” Tooru agreed. “He’s their crown prince, the heir to the throne. As far as I know, the people love him; they nicknamed him Hinata and that’s what most of them call him. He should be making political marriages, not mating to the second prince of an already defeated kingdom.”

“Their king did say he would’ve preferred to have his son mate with you,” Tobio said. “But you’re already mated and pregnant so it wouldn’t work.”

“They wanted…wait,” Tooru trailed off, letting his mind spin. If they wanted Seijoh’s former crown prince for their son rather than a political union with an existing kingdom…

“It is a political mating,” Hajime spoke up, getting to the same place as Tooru. Tooru was grateful for his mate’s ability to match him in mental strength, but he wasn’t sure yet what to make of his conclusion.

“But why?” Tobio asked. “Seijoh’s…fallen.”

Tooru didn’t miss the grimace at that.

“It wasn’t your fault, Tobio,” he told his brother. “We would’ve fallen either way. Karasuno was stronger than us. They brought more men. Even if they hadn’t gotten past you that night, they would’ve gotten through by sheer force alone.”

“But maybe I could’ve delayed them long enough to call for help,” Tobio argued. “Maybe we could’ve called Shiratorizawa.”

“They’re too far away,” Hajime told him with no nonsense in his tone. “Even if we’d managed to send a message, it would’ve been weeks or months for them to march down an army large enough to do anything against Karasuno. Maybe if you’d stayed closer, you could’ve held them for another week. That wouldn’t have bought us enough time. We didn’t have enough warning that they were coming, they were practically at our door before we could get even you out to defend us from them. You really think with that kind of speed Shiratorizawa would’ve been here in time to make any difference?”

Tooru could see in Tobio’s eyes that he didn’t believe them. No one blamed Tobio for anything more than he blamed himself. Not that Tooru was any different, not that he didn’t empathize, but there was no use in Tobio beating himself up about this when there was nothing he could’ve done differently to change the outcome. Hajime had told him more than once that the two of them were too similar, too hard on themselves, but that didn’t change either of them.

“But why me?” Tobio asked. “If Seijoh is really gone, how am I a political marriage?”

“Think about it. Political marriages usually appease the citizens of whoever’s getting mated,” Tooru said, trying not to let himself get his hopes up at what his idea implied. He had no proof yet. “Karasuno citizens probably don’t care about having a Seijoh citizen as their next queen, so if the king and queen want you, who’s left to appease?”

“Seijoh,” Tobio said, sitting up slowly, fixing those haunting blue eyes on Tooru. “But why would they need to…?”

“Because they’re afraid of our people,” Hajime told him. A glance told Tooru they were on the same page. “We don’t have any news of the outside, we don’t know what happened to any of our people after the war. What would they have to be afraid of except a rebellion?”

“You mean…” Tobio trailed off, eyes going wide and sparks of hope appearing. “We could get out of here?”

“We don’t even know for sure yet that’s why they want you,” Tooru said, hating that he had to kill that spark of hope. Still, if it turned out there was another reason they wanted Tobio to mate their prince, Tooru didn’t want to see the hope die later after it had time to grow.

Tobio’s face fell, and Tooru was reminded of how young he was. Eighteen years old, barely a man, and yet he’d fought and lost a war, and now had to navigate the perilous world of kingdom politics he’d been allowed to ignore before. As the second prince, he’d been free to do as he pleased within the confines of the castle so long as he obeyed some etiquette rules. He hadn’t grown up like Tooru had, questioning who would support him and who wouldn’t, and more importantly, what everyone wanted from him.

Now, though, Tobio was playing the game too, whether wanted to or not. He couldn’t hide behind his status as the second prince of a kingdom when he was a piece in the game that another side was fighting for control over.

Tooru locked eyes with Tobio and saw steel there. He let himself grin, a real grin, not the easy smile that entranced all the nobles back home and hid all his feelings here. There was no way Tobio would be a weak pawn in this game. He wasn’t born to be controlled so easily. He was a proud omega of Seijoh’s royal family, and he wouldn’t be brought to heel without a fight.

“So what do we do now?” Tobio asked.

“We wait,” Tooru replied.

“We can’t do anything until we know more,” Hajime agreed. “For now, we have to pretend we’re giving up. They can’t have a reason to pay more attention to us.”

“Try not to piss the prince off too much,” Tooru advised. “You don’t have to actually be nice to him, but avoid him if you think you’re going to snap again.”

“I can do that,” Tobio nodded. “I don’t want anything to do with him, anyway.”

“We’ll figure this out,” Tooru promised. “We won’t be trapped here forever.”

“Do you think we could send a message to Shiratorizawa?” Tobio asked. “Would they be able to come get us?”

“They’d have to go to war with Karasuno to do anything, and I doubt Ushijima would act unless he was sure he could do it without getting us killed,” Hajime said. “There’s no point in trying to get to us if we wouldn’t survive.”

“If he does anything, he’d probably send an ambassador to try and get us out,” Tooru thought aloud. “The only way he can really play this without getting his kingdom stuck in a war with Karasuno is if he does it peacefully. He’s got enough problems with Itachiyama up north, he doesn’t need a war down south too.”

“But would he do that?” Tobio asked.

“He probably shouldn’t,” Tooru admitted. “Since Seijoh doesn’t exist anymore, neither does our alliance with Shiratorizawa. I’ve never known Ushijima to pay much attention to stuff like that, though.”

“I thought you didn’t like him,” Tobio said.

“Ushijima and I…have had our differences,” Tooru sighed. “But I do respect him. And he really might try to get us out of here. I just don’t know what he’ll do yet. I need to know more about what’s happening outside the castle.”

“So we wait?” Hajime suggested.

“We wait,” Tooru nodded. “I refuse to spend the rest of my life trapped in a gilded cage. Just because they’re being nice to us doesn’t make it less a cage. We’ll get out of here, somehow. I promise you both.”

Hajime and Tobio wore matching determined expressions, and Tooru was grateful for them. If he had to be trapped behind enemy lines with anyone, his mate and his little brother weren’t the worst people he could think of.

Not by a long shot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: Hinata tries (and fails?) to woo Kageyama.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Picking fights is not an appropriate style of flirting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all can pry competitive af Kagehina out of my cold dead hands.

“And then you step forward like this, and _thrust_ ,” Shouyou said, demonstrating the move. “And then your enemy is dead!”

“Dead!” Natsu giggled, clapping her hands.

“That’s very nice, Hinata-sama,” Hitoka, Natsu’s handmaiden, told him. “Have you thought any more about what you’re going to do about Kageyama?”

Shouyou puffed out his cheeks. Honestly, he hadn’t. He’d asked Hitoka for advice almost as soon as he’d left Tanaka, before he’d even had a chance to meet with Asahi for the first time. She’d protested that there was no way she could help. She was only a mid-born noble, not a prince, and she didn’t know much about Seijoh, but Shouyou had waved off her concerns. She was one of the smartest people he knew, and besides, as an omega she should be able to help him talk to Kageyama more than an alpha or a beta could.

“He’s avoiding me, I know it,” Shouyou complained. Really, it was almost insulting, the way he thought he kept seeing snatches of the omega out of the corner of his eye, always gone by the time he turned. He was fast, but for the past few days, Kageyama had been faster. “I’m not going to _hurt_ him, the least he could do is talk to me!”

“The queen said the way you spoke to him was an insult, right?” Hitoka asked. Shouyou nodded. “Then you have to apologize before he’ll talk to you.”

“It’s hard to apologize when he keeps avoiding me,” Shouyou countered.

“Maybe you just weren’t trying hard enough,” Hitoka suggested. Shouyou thought about it. Maybe she was right. He’d been trying to run into Kageyama and start a casual conversation for days, but he hadn’t been actively seeking the omega out and trying to apologize.

“Should I bring him a gift?” Shouyou asked. “Hitoka, what would you want from an alpha trying to apologize for insulting you and also trying to court you?”

“Those glass beads they make down in the workshops are really pretty,” Hitoka mused. “I like pretty things. But I don’t know if that’ll work for him. He’s a man, after all.”

“It’s a start,” Shouyou said. “I’ll just go down and look. Maybe there’ll be something cool down there. He’d probably like something cool, right?”

Hitoka gave him that helpless look that he’d learned from years of friendship meant “I don’t know.” He left her playing with Natsu, without a full plan, but with the potential for one.

Hitoka wasn’t kidding when she’d said the glass beads in the workshops were pretty. Shouyou hadn’t realized glass could have so many colors, although he recognized some jewelry that looked like what his mother and father sometimes wore.

One necklace in particular caught his eye. It was a silver chain, simply set, with a pendant of deep blue that reminded Shouyou of the glimpse of steely blue eyes.

“Can I take this?” he asked the surly-looking beta man working behind the bench.

“Of course, Hinata-sama,” the man grunted, not even looking up from his work. Shouyou picked the necklace up carefully. He was surprised to find that it was much less delicate than it had looked upon first inspection. It felt sturdy in his hands. He smiled to himself as he slipped it into his pocket. Now to find Kageyama.

Shouyou wandered the castle, starting from close to the rooms that had been given to the Seijoh princes and the older one’s mate. He’d given up on looking with his eyes, instead trying to find Kageyama by scent. He still remembered the light floral scent, different from the sugary omega scents he was used to.

He wove around the castle, dodging clean beta scents and earth alpha scents, looking for that one elusive jasmine before finally venturing outside. He was almost ready to quit and give it another try tomorrow when he caught the faintest whiff.

Eagerly following his nose, he started to sprint through the gardens. He’d been running around these from a young age, and probably knew them better than anyone in the castle save for the gardeners. His feet followed familiar paths with ease, taking him around and down new paths as the scent of jasmine grew stronger. It was almost unfamiliar to him, coming from Karasuno, but he was told it was common in Seijoh.

He rounded the corner and stopped dead. There, in a practically forgotten alcove, in the light of the dying sun, stood Kageyama Tobio. His arm was free from its sling, only the bandage still wrapped around it a reminder of the injury. He moved fluidly, unknowing of Shouyou watching, swinging his sword in what looked more like a dance than an art of war.

The light slanted across his face, lighting his eyes, which looked more peaceful than Shouyou remembered. He was completely in control of his motions in a way Shouyou had never seen before.

He was beautiful.

Shouyou must have made some kind of noise, because Kageyama dropped his smooth fighting pose to stand tall and stiff. His eyes fixed on Shouyou’s, and any plans he’d had flew out the window.

“Please teach me how to fight like that!” Shouyou blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“What? No! Why would I do that?” Kageyama sounded scandalized. Shouyou whipped his head up, and Kageyama was glaring at him. _Scary._

“Because you’re so good, and I want to be as good as you,” Shouyou said.

“Do you have any idea what you’re doing?” Kageyama asked. “Have you learned your basic forms?”

“I…” Shouyou trailed off. Asahi had shown him a few of these forms at their first lesson, and he’d been practicing them, he _had_ , but it had only been a few days. He didn’t have them memorized.

“Then I have nothing to teach you.” Kageyama brushed past him, and suddenly Shouyou was mad. He’d been looking for Kageyama for days, trying to hold _one conversation_ , and now it was ending like this.

“Hey!” he shouted after Kageyama’s retreating back. The omega froze, looking over his shoulder with something like defiance and something like fear. Shouyou was too mad to worry about either of those. “If you’re such a great swordsman, then someday I’ll get strong enough and beat you, and then I’ll be the strongest.”

“You’re a hundred years away from that,” Kageyama scoffed, but his glare looked dark. “In war, only the strong remain standing on their feet. You have no idea what that’s like, little prince.”

Shouyou wanted to argue back, but Kageyama was already walking away. He vowed that the next time he had a lesson with Asahi, he wouldn’t leave until he had every form memorized perfectly.

It turned out he didn’t have to wait long. The next morning, bright and early, he was with Asahi in an unused chamber. He’d spent over an hour doing it, but Asahi had taken him through every basic form time and again, until he could do them without thinking.

He wiped the sweat from his brow, turning to see Kageyama peering in, looking curious.

“I learned my basic forms,” he announced. “You should practice with me.”

“Why would I do that?” Kageyama asked. “I’d crush you in less than a minute.”

“Prove it,” Shouyou challenged. Kageyama raised one eyebrow – damn him, Shouyou had always wanted to be able to do that. “If I can beat you, you stay and practice with me.”

Kageyama snorted.

“If you can get even one touch on me, I’d be surprised,” he said. “But fine. If by some miracle you manage to beat me, I’ll stay and practice with you.”

He took the practice sword Asahi offered him, dropping into the easy stance Shouyou had seen him in the day before. Shouyou lifted his own practice sword, exactly as Asahi had taught him. Though Asahi had praised him for being a quick study, Shouyou knew he didn’t look nearly as graceful as Kageyama did.

Still, he was determined to win this. This was his best chance to make any kind of friend out of Kageyama, and even if it wasn’t elegant, even if he could only do it with surprise, he was determined to win.

Kageyama struck at him, and he barely had time to get his sword up to block it. _Damn it_. He was striking so much faster than Asahi had, and it was all Shouyou could do to keep from getting hit.

There was only one way he could get out of this. He dropped, rolled to the side, and sprinted around Kageyama’s back to attack.

Kageyama whipped around, barely catching Shouyou’s sword in time. They stood still for just a moment, and although his plan hadn’t worked Shouyou felt pride at the shock he saw in those wide blue eyes.

Then they were moving again, Kageyama suddenly much faster, and Shouyou realized Kageyama had been _toying_ with him before. He yelled and swung his sword faster, determined to win even if by speed alone, forgetting all the forms he’d spent days practicing with Asahi.

Kageyama smacked the sword out of his hand, whipping the point up to rest on his neck.

“If this was a real battle, you’d be dead,” he informed Shouyou. Shouyou just glared at him.

“So what?” he spit out. “You’ve been training for years haven’t you? I just started learning. I’ll get better and I’ll beat you someday!”

“You…just started learning?” Kageyama asked. “What have you been doing your whole life?”

“Who cares?” Shouyou snapped, grabbing the wooden sword and pushing it away from his throat.

“You’ve been wasting your reflexes,” Kageyama said. “You could’ve been good if you’d actually been trained.”

“Hey!”

“Actually,” Asahi broke in, raising his hands in defense against how angry they both probably smelled, “it might be good for you to stay, Kageyama. Even when he got sloppy at the end, that’s the best Hinata-sama has looked all day. You give him something to work towards. Even if it’s only for now, please continue coming to our practices.”

Kageyama surveyed both of them, looking at their faces carefully. He let his shoulders relax, sword finally dropping.

“Fine,” he conceded. “It’s not like I have anything better to do while I’m trapped here, anyway.”

He turned and left.

“He’s so _rude_ ,” Shouyou complained, turning when he heard Asahi laugh. “What?”

“No offense meant, Hinata-sama, but he’s exactly what you need in a practice partner,” Asahi told him, already over his laughing fit. “You two are so competitive, I can already tell. You’ll make each other better.”

“You really think so?”

“I’ve been a soldier for a long time. I’ve taught a lot of young men how to fight. You two are no different than any of my other students. I’ve seen it before.”

“So we’ll make each other better if we don’t kill each other first?”

“If you’re anything like my other students, you’ll be best friends in a few months.”

“I’ll believe that when I see it.”

Still, Shouyou had to admit that fighting with Kageyama had been more fun than just working through forms with Asahi. He fingered the necklace he’d been carrying around in his pocket. Hitoka was right, this wasn’t the kind of thing Kageyama would like at all. It was probably a good thing he’d picked a fight before he could give it to him.

He couldn’t see himself being best friends with Kageyama, but now he had a new goal. He was going to wipe the floor with the omega and make him admit Shouyou wasn’t useless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: Kageyama tries (and fails?) to teach Hinata how to fight.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fighting isn't friendship! Or is it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> School is kicking my ass but I'm determined to at least attempt to keep up with my nanowrimo goals, so here's another chapter.

Tobio couldn’t say this was the best thing he’d ever imagined doing, but at least it was better than moping around his room alone or hanging out with Tooru and Hajime. He loved his brother and his mate, he really did, but he could only handle so much of Tooru on good days, and pregnancy hadn’t made his brother any easier to be around. He’d left around the time Tooru had started asking Hajime to rub his feet.

So now, instead, he was watching the prince – Hinata, the servants called him Hinata – work through the forms of wielding a sword with his fencing master, slowly, carefully, learning the steps for the first time. His reflexes were good, but he was so untrained that he would be useless in a real fight.

Tobio sighed. He was bored out of his mind. Maybe he’d ask Asahi to go a few rounds with him after this pathetically slow lesson was over. On the other hand, the older alpha was too intimidated to strike too hard at Hinata. He’d probably be too afraid to do anything to an omega, if other Karasuno alphas were anything to go by.

Tobio shook his head. He was annoyed by how he’d been treated so far. His clothes from Seijoh had been worn nearly to rags, meaning he’d had to resort to wearing the Karasuno style clothes provided for him. Tooru had already started wearing them, begrudgingly admitting that while they were a lot looser than normal, they were more comfortable for a pregnant belly.

Without the obstacle of pregnancy, Tobio had no need for looser clothing. He was lucky he’d managed to find a pair of pants and a shirt, though it was too flowy and too low cut. He’d seen other omegas, male and female, walking around in similar things, although many of them were wearing dresses. He had no idea how they moved in those, but then again, there didn’t seem to be a lot of reason for omegas to move. He hadn’t seen a single omega soldier, and based off what he already knew about Karasuno, there probably weren’t any.

He sighed, watching Hinata mess up yet another step he’d been able to do since childhood. From what he’d heard, Hinata had been prohibited from training with the sword until recently by the queen. He wasn’t sure why the queen had forbidden it for so long, but maybe it was an heir to the throne thing. He remembered their father had never liked letting Tooru spend too much time training to fight, although he thought that had been because Tooru needed to learn how to rule the kingdom.

It wasn’t like Tooru was helpless, anyway, not like Hinata was. Even if he, for some reason, got into trouble he couldn’t talk himself out of, he was perfectly capable of defending himself. Hinata would be slaughtered the minute anyone attacked him seriously, that much was plain.

“Kageyama?” Asahi called, and Tobio jolted out of his reverie. He hadn’t even noticed that Asahi had called Hinata to rest. “Would you like to practice some as well?”

Tobio nodded. He’d been sitting there for over an hour, he might as well. Hinata faced him head on, stance much less stiff than it had been yesterday. Tobio lifted his sword easily. He attacked, using his height to thrust at Hinata from a distance. Hinata stepped back, not letting the point of his sword drop, before smacking Tobio’s sword aside to dive closer to him.

Tobio had seen his speed before, was prepared for it, but he was still surprised at how quickly Hinata got close to him. He side stepped, swinging his sword and hoping to hit Hinata and end this quickly.

Hinata ducked and rolled, almost as if he could sense the sword coming for him. Tobio nearly froze. Hinata was blending the forms, blending as well as Tobio could himself. He was fast too. Tobio unfroze in time to keep Hinata from winning – he wouldn’t allow that, he would never allow that, Hinata couldn’t be allowed to beat him – and pressed forward, forcing Hinata to retreat.

He fought seriously, not as he had that first day, but as if Hinata was a real opponent. He was still easy enough to beat, untrained as he was, but Tobio noted that his form looked less panicked than it had that first day.

With his advantage in height, it wasn’t long before Tobio’s sword once again rested on Hinata’s neck.

“Dead,” he said simply, letting the sword drop. Hinata grit his teeth and glared at him.

“Teach me how to do that!” he demanded.

“Do what?”

“That thing you did! Where you went GWAH and POW and BAM!” Hinata waved his arms around in a way that was maybe meant to be demonstrative but that told Tobio nothing.

“I don’t…those aren’t words,” Tobio stuttered. He looked at Asahi. “Are those words?”

Asahi shook his head, but he looked mildly amused. Tobio turned back to see Hinata attempting a spin, and clumsy as it was, it let Tobio know what Hinata was trying to say.

“You can’t do that yet, dumbass,” he said, forgetting in his excitement the danger he was in. “You’re still sloppy on your basic forms, you wouldn’t be able to do the advanced stuff yet.”

“Did you just call me a dumbass?” Hinata asked, and Tobio felt his stomach drop. He hadn’t meant to actually be rude, it had just slipped out, and now he had no idea how Hinata would react. “That’s so _mean_ , Kageyama!”

Tobio let out a breath of relief. Hinata was shouting at him now, but it didn’t seem like he’d do anything worse than that.

“Get better and maybe you won’t be such a dumbass, dumbass,” Tobio countered, now that he knew he was safe.

“You’re so vulgar! And don’t you have any insults other than dumbass?”

“Stupid.”

“Rude!”

“Please don’t fight,” Asahi interrupted, stepping between them. He looked much less amused and much more frightened of the two of them. Tobio had never known anyone so timid, alpha, beta, or omega.

“Sorry, Asahi,” Hinata apologized, nodding his head. He turned to Tobio. “You apologize too, Kageyama.”

“What?” Tobio narrowed his eyes. “Why?”

“Because you started it! And you scared Asahi too!”

“How did I start it? You were the one who started shouting first.”

“Stupid Kageyama! It’s because you called me a dumbass that I started shouting!”

“Maybe if you didn’t act like a dumbass I wouldn’t have to call you a dumbass!”

He and Hinata stood panting, glaring at each other, before Hinata turned in a huff.

“I’ll beat you tomorrow!” he promised. “And I’ll do it whether you teach me how to do that GWAH thing or not!”

“You’ll never learn it until you perfect your basic forms,” Tobio informed him. “You’re still sloppy.”

“And you’re mean!”

“And you’re a dumbass!”

Tobio left in a whirl of too-loose shirt and messy hair. He headed back to the room he had that was connected to Tooru and Hajime’s. He pulled the sweaty clothes away from his body, using the pitcher of water in the corner to wipe some of the sweat away from his face and body. He’d bathe later, of course, but for now he was too riled up to sit still.

He glanced at the closet of clothes that had been provided for him, all loose, all flowy, and all too irritating to even think about putting on. He settled instead for wrapping a sheet from his bed around himself. He was only going over to Tooru and Hajime’s, it didn’t matter if he was properly dressed. Basically naked would be better than those clothes, anyway.

He dragged himself over to the door connecting to Tooru and Hajime’s room, knocking. He’d learned to knock over years of growing up with Tooru and Hajime, never knowing exactly how he would find the two. Pregnancy had tempered Tooru a little, but Tobio still didn’t want to watch Hajime giving his brother another foot rub or back massage.

“Come in,” Tooru’s voice called from within. Tobio pushed the door open to see his brother sprawled out on the bed, blankets tucked around him in a nest. He looked paler, sun freckled skin turning milky, probably because he hadn’t been going outside as much as he would’ve at home in fear of what Karasuno alphas might do to a pregnant Seijoh omega.

They hadn’t been confined to anywhere in the castle or the grounds – Tobio had gone all over outside, exploring out of sheer boredom, and no one had ever prevented him from going anywhere, though he knew the guards were all watching him. Maybe he would walk right up to the wall outside the castle, just to see what the guards would do. Maybe by some miracle he could walk right out.

Hajime was perched behind Tooru, comforting hand on his mate’s shoulder. “How was the training session?”

“He’s a complete dumbass,” Tobio said without hesitation. “He’s still sloppy on the most basic forms, and he asked me to teach him advanced stuff. And then he argued with me!”

Hajime chuckled a little, and Tooru held a laugh behind his hand.

“What?” he asked. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing, it’s just…” Tooru giggled again. “I haven’t seen you look like you were having so much fun in a long time. The last time I remember you looking like this was when Hajime was teaching you tricks with a sword.”

“I am not having fun!” Tobio protested, but he trailed off. His body felt heavy and sated from a good workout, and all the fear that had been hanging around his mind had faded since he’d fought with Hinata and faced no consequences.

“You’re having fun,” Hajime said, and Tobio glared at him.

“Shut up. Just because I had one good training session with him doesn’t mean I’m going to mate with him now,” Tobio said hotly.

“Relax, neither of us expects you to,” Tooru waved him down. “But having a friend here wouldn’t be so bad, would it? Plus, maybe you’ll learn something about what’s going on outside the castle from him. It might be easy if you got along so well.”

“We did nothing but fight!”

“That’s how the best friendships start,” Hajime told him. “We don’t want to pressure you, but there could be something for you to gain from him. Just keep going to the training sessions. You had fun today, didn’t you?”

Tobio nodded, because despite himself, he had.

“I promised you we’d find a way out of here, and I meant that,” Tooru spoke up. “We just have to be careful until we figure something out. You being on better terms with the prince can only help us. Don’t do anything drastic, just keep doing what you’re doing. It seems to be working out for you so far.”

Tobio nodded. He could do that. And maybe if he was smart like Tooru, he could get information from Hinata that would get all three of them out of there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: Oikawa and Iwaizumi go outside.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata isn't quite the airhead he seems to be

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm American, which should tell you all you need to know about why I'm sad and unable to sleep. There might be another update from me tonight because I'm too restless to sit here and do nothing, even if I can't sleep.

“Come on, I found a nice quiet spot where no one will bother us,” Hajime said, dragging Tooru by the hand. Tooru whined as his mate moved too fast for him to keep up. Moving into his fifth month of pregnancy was starting to give him a waddle, and he couldn’t move nearly as quickly as he’d been able to even a few weeks ago.

“Hajime, too fast!” he whined, dragging his feet to get his mate to slow down. Hajime stopped then, turning to him.

“Sorry,” he apologized. “But you’ll feel better once you get out in the sunlight again.”

Tooru whined as they kept walking, but he had to admit the idea of sunshine and fresh air did sound nice. He’d been cooped up inside for too long when he was used to spend so much time outside back home. His skin was getting so pale he was starting to look sick.

Hajime pulled him into a quiet alcove in the gardens, muffled from the rest of the world by a thick hedge. He laid down a blanket from their room and helped Tooru sit.

“See?” Hajime asked once they’d both settled. “Better?”

“Mhmm,” Tooru hummed, tilting his head back and closing his eyes to let the sun wash over his face. Summer was approaching and the warmth around him was comforting. The sweet scent of warm grass was all around him, and while he missed the delicate floral scents he’d become used to in Seijoh, the familiar earthy scent of his mate beside him calmed him.

“Do you need any water? It’s really warm out,” Hajime said, breaking him from his trance.

“I’m okay,” Tooru assured him. “I just want to sit with you.”

“I’m going to get some water, just in case you’re thirsty later,” Hajime said anyway. Tooru tried to grab for him as he stood up, but he was already moving away. Tooru sighed, but he smiled fondly. As he got more pregnant, Hajime had gotten more protective. He’d been prepared for this, had watched it happen with Tobio’s mother when he was younger, but it still surprised him.

Tobio’s mother had been young, barely a man of twenty, when he was carrying Tobio. Tooru had liked Misaki, had liked how happy his father was with the omega around. He’d been too young when his father remarried to recognize that Misaki wasn’t his mother, especially when Misaki made the effort to try and mother Tooru. He’d been warm and kind, almost the polar opposite of who his son would grow into, but Tooru could still see traces of Misaki in Tobio.

When he’d been older, he’d learned to be jealous of Tobio, though they’d both lost their mothers to childbirth. At least Tobio could have the stories Tooru and Hajime could tell about his mother, vague as they were from their seven year old minds.

Tooru was startled by an unfamiliar scent, instantly on alert. An alpha was peering into the alcove, one Tooru didn’t recognize. He tensed.

“You’re a pretty one,” the alpha said, stalking his way in. Tooru leaned back, giving him a defiant glare. “What are you doing, hiding away in here?”

“Waiting for my mate,” Tooru said, tone light, expression dark. He didn’t want any sort of fight, especially not alone.

“You’re pregnant,” the alpha said, putting his hands on Tooru’s belly before he could back away. Tooru made a scandalized noise and tried to scoot away, but the alpha followed. “Your first child? You look older to be carrying your first.”

Tooru hissed, backing away until he felt himself hitting against a hedge.

“No insult meant, of course,” the alpha smirked, letting him know that yes, insult was meant. “You’re not one of those prudish omegas who refuses to spread their legs to a good alpha, are you?”

“Back off,” Tooru snapped, wishing desperately for a sword, a knife, _anything._ The alpha’s scent surrounded him, unfamiliar and cloying and _not his pack._ “Don’t _touch me._ ”

“Come on, sweetheart, don’t be like that,” the alpha ignored his protests. “Spread your legs like the good little omega whore you are. It’s how you got knocked up in the first place, isn’t it?”

“Don’t…!”

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Tooru looked up, expecting to see Hajime, but instead seeing the prince. Hinata, Tobio called him. His face was scarily blank, big brown eyes focused on the alpha. He stood quickly.

“Hinata-sama, I was just…”

“I believe my mother’s orders were to not bother the Seijoh princes,” Hinata said, voice carefully void of emotion. “Surely you can see you’re bothering him?”

“His alpha…”

“It doesn’t matter where his alpha is,” Hinata cut the other off smoothly, every bit the eldest child of a royal bloodline he was supposed to be. “You were told to leave them in peace. You disobeyed. That warrants punishment.”

The alpha paled.

“Hinata-sama, please…”

“Spread the word,” Hinata interrupted once again. “If anyone is caught interfering with any of our guests from Seijoh, they will be reported to the queen and accept whatever punishment he sees fit. Understood?”

“Yes, Hinata-sama,” the alpha backed out, breathing a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Hinata-sama.”

“Don’t let it happen again.”

Hinata turned then, scary light fading from his eyes as they focused back on Tooru.

“Are you alright?” he asked, right before Hajime turned the corner and locked eyes with Tooru.

“Tooru!” he cried, dropping the pitcher of water he’d been carrying and running to his mate’s side. “What happened? Did he…?”

“No,” Tooru answered, turning Hajime from where he’d already rounded defensively on Hinata. “It was another alpha, he protected me.”

“I should’ve protected you,” Hajime grumbled. “Tooru, I’m so sorry, I should never have left you alone like that.”

“Um…” Tooru and Hajime both looked up to see Hinata bowing to them. “I’m very sorry about him. My mother really did tell everyone to leave you in peace. I know you think we’re horrible to unmated omegas, and maybe we are, but most of our alphas know better than to touch a pregnant, mated omega. He was completely out of line, and I apologize that it happened when you’re supposed to be our guests.”

“We’re…you’re guests?” Hajime asked slowly. Hinata straightened out of his bow.

“My parents are trying to treat you as such,” he said.

“It’s kind of hard to be guests when you aren’t allowed to leave,” Tooru said before he could stop himself. Hinata had the decency to look sheepish.

“If you’d like, I can ask the guard to stand closer to you,” he offered. “My father asked them to keep their distance to make you more comfortable, but if you want them closer so they can stop alphas like that, I can talk to him.”

“I can take care of my own omega,” Hajime growled. “But thank you. We’ll think about it.”

“I really am sorry,” Hinata said again, looking ashamed. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. Hopefully he’ll spread the word and no one will bother you anymore.”

He bowed once more before turning to leave. Tooru clung to Hajime, letting his breaths fall into scared pants he hadn’t allowed with others around.

“Tooru, are you okay? Is the baby?” Hajime asked frantically, hands fluttering like he didn’t know where to check first.

“Yes, I’m…I’m fine, just give me…give me a minute,” Tooru panted. He squeezed one hand over his heart. “I can’t believe he got that close. If I’d just had a knife, or if I hadn’t been pregnant, maybe…”

“I should’ve been here to protect you,” Hajime argued. “We’re not home, and I forgot that for a second. We aren’t safe here.”

“Still, I didn’t expect the prince of all people to protect me,” Tooru said. “He was different than the last time we saw him. I think I underestimated him, Hajime.”

“You usually do. It’s part of your terrible personality.”

“Rude!”

Tooru heard shouts then, one voice obviously Hinata, the other recognizable as his own brother. The shouts were followed by a trampling sound that probably meant the beginnings of a foot race. Tooru had already recognized the beginnings of a competitive streak in Tobio, one that Tobio himself didn’t even realize was growing into something less filled with hate and more filled with camaraderie.

“Cheater!” he heard Hinata’s voice cry.

“Dumbass, it’s not cheating if your legs are so short,” Tobio shouted back. “Grow a little and then try again.”

“Mean! I’m going to beat you, stupid Kageyama!”

Tooru wondered if Tobio would be so easy with his insults if he’d seen Hinata look as scary as he had just moments ago. He wondered if Tobio would even be smart enough to realize just how dangerous this little prince was.

“Tobio’s playing with fire,” he said, not entirely intending to speak aloud. Hajime turned to him, one eyebrow quirked in askance. “That prince. Hinata. He’s more dangerous than I realized. You wouldn’t have believe it was the same person, Hajime, he was everything Father ever tried to teach me to be.”

“He’s going to get himself burned, isn’t he?” Hajime asked, nodding in the direction of the shouts, mostly the word dumbass – Tooru _had_ to teach Tobio some better insults. “He’s never been careful about rushing into things he shouldn’t.”

Tooru remembered a childhood of pulling Tobio out of branches and down from trees because he hadn’t looked carefully enough before he leaped into them.

“Maybe,” he conceded. “Or maybe this time he won’t.”

They both listened again to the sounds of the two younger ones sprinting around the garden, screaming insults fit for street urchins at each other. The crashing sounds grew louder as the two came into view, sprinting past the opening to the alcove so fast that neither turned to see Tooru and Hajime watching them. They raced neck and neck, screaming at the top of their lungs and they sprinted, arms pumping, gravel spraying.

“I don’t think he’s going to get himself burned this time,” Tooru nodded, the sounds of the two fading into the distance.

“What are you planning?” Hajime asked, looking suspicious but hopeful. “An idea to get out?”

“Maybe,” Tooru admitted. “More like…an idea for an idea? The ghost of an idea? I might have something to work with now, and that’s enough for me to start planning.”

“What are you thinking?”

“Don’t do anything, yet. Tobio’s already doing beautifully on his own.”

“And then?”

“When we know more, then we move.”

“You really do have the worst personality.”

“Mean!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: Kageyama and Hinata go to a ball.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ball happens

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time to start injecting the angst...

Shouyou watched couples swirling around, loose fabric and necklaces flying as they twirled in their dance. He itched to join them, tapping his feet on the ground to the music around them, but there was something holding him back.

Kageyama was next to him, arms folded across his chest. He’d sat in his assigned seat by Shouyou and proceeded to use every body language signal he knew to tell people to back off. Shouyou wanted to poke him for that alone, but he’d promised his mother he’d be on his best behavior for tonight. That meant being nice to Kageyama, even if he’d done nothing to deserve it.

Kageyama was making no secret of how much he didn’t want to be there. Shouyou had heard that when he was informed of his mandatory participation, he’d looked jealously at his brother’s pregnant belly that had excused him from coming. No one in their right minds would force a pregnant omega to go anywhere.

“Do you want to dance?” Shouyou offered. Kageyama always looked happier when they were training than any other time. Maybe the movement would make him lighten up.

“I don’t dance,” Kageyama replied tersely. Shouyou resisted the urge to puff out his cheeks – _best behavior, best behavior_ – and instead tried to smile, warm and inviting.

“I can teach you if you don’t know how,” he said, trying to make the offer sound enticing.

“I don’t want to,” Kageyama snapped a little more forcefully. Shouyou shot him a glare.

“You could at least pretend you want to be here,” Shouyou told him. Kageyama’s eyes widened for a moment before they narrowed, spitting blue fire.

“This is a ball to celebrate your kingdom taking over mine and you want me to _act like I want to be here?_ ” Kageyama asked incredulously, and yeah, now that he said it out loud Shouyou heard it, but he didn’t want to spend his entire night with a miserable, glaring Kageyama.

“Fine. Be that way,” Shouyou huffed, leaning back into his seat. Kageyama went back to glaring around the crowd with his arms crossed over his chest. His leg jigged nervously. He couldn’t look more like he wanted to leave if he tried. Maybe he actually was trying. Shouyou wouldn’t put it past him.

Shouyou scanned the crowd, looking for anything to take his mind off his boredom. He noticed an older alpha man trying to catch the attentions of a young omega girl nearby. He had an idea.

“See that?” he asked Kageyama, nodding at the old man. Kageyama turned just in time to see the omega throw her drink in his face as everyone in the vicinity, including her, started laughing. “That’s old man Nekomata. I’m sure my mother made him promise to behave himself, but if we have parties without foreign ambassadors he’s the life of them. One time he downed an entire bottle of wine, raced out on the floor, and tried to duel on of my father’s best knights with a fish.”

Kageyama glanced at him, looking at least a little less surly than he had before. His eyes sparked with interest. Shouyou decided to keep talking.

“That man sitting next to him?” Shouyou used his chin to point. “That’s old man Ukai. He’s around fifth in line for the throne. He and Nekomata are best friends, but old rivals. Once they got into a drinking competition, and they outdrank all of the people around them. When they ran out of wine, they decided to start a dancing competition. I’ve never seen someone dance a jig for as long as the two of them did. The musicians got so tired they had to start cycling parts so the music wouldn’t stop.”

Kageyama hadn’t drawn back into himself yet. If anything, he was leaning forward, listening. Shouyou grinned. If this was all it took to get Kageyama to look less like he wanted to kill something, Shouyou could tell stories all night.

“That old man sitting by himself, over there?” He waited for Kageyama to turn and look where he needed to. “That’s Washijou-sensei. He’s our permanent ambassador from Shiratorizawa. The new king sent him right around the time he took the throne. Washijou-sensei wants war between our two kingdoms, so he’s always trying to stir up trouble, but he’s not very good at it. Last time he tried anything, he made it look like a Shiratorizawa eagle came to declare war, but he didn’t forge the signature well enough, so we could tell it wasn’t real.”

“Why do you keep him around if he’s that dangerous?” Kageyama asked, and Shouyou counted it as a victory that he’d gotten Kageyama to speak without making him angry.

“He’s not really that dangerous if we know what he’s up to,” Shouyou shrugged. “Like I said, he’s not very good at it, and it’s not like he doesn’t do his job of relaying messages to Shiratorizawa on our behalf. If we reported him to their king and got a new ambassador, that would leave us with someone we don’t know. We don’t trust Washijou-sensei, but we also understand him. It’s easier to fight the devil you know.”

“Huh,” Kageyama hummed, sitting back. He looked surprised, and maybe a little impressed. “That’s smart. I never would have thought of that.”

“I got you to look like you wanted to be here,” Shouyou teased, before he remembered that revealing his advantage would make it go away. Kageyama looked even more surprised, before closing off again.

“Why are you bothering?” Kageyama asked. “I know you want to go dance. Just go. I’ll be fine here.”

“I can’t,” Shouyou told him. Kageyama raised an eyebrow in question. “We have rules about bonded omegas. Not…so much for unbonded omegas, which I guess you’ve noticed, but definitely bonded omegas. Mating mark or no, you’re my omega for the night, which means I owe you my respect. I can’t just leave you sitting here alone. That would be insulting to you.”

“I wouldn’t be insulted,” Kageyama countered.

“It doesn’t matter,” Shouyou told him. “If I left you and went off to find some other omega or beta to spend my night with, everyone here would see it. You wouldn’t find it insulting, but they would. They would see how little our family cares for our guests, and other kingdoms would understand the insult to you, too. Not to mention, if I left you here, that would be me showing disrespect for you in public, so it would let everyone here know it’s okay with me for them to disrespect you too.”

Kageyama was frozen after Shouyou’s whole explanation.

“You’ve…thought about this a lot,” he said slowly.

“Nah. It’s just stuff I had to learn,” Shouyou shrugged. “I’m going to be king here someday. If I accidentally insulted someone, it would mean war, or at least discord in the streets.”

They sat in silence, watching the ball continue around them.

“Thank you,” Kageyama said, almost too quietly for Shouyou to hear. Shouyou whipped his head up.

“For what?”

“Not trying to force me to do anything. Making this…not-awful.”

“You just looked miserable. Anyone would have done it.”

“No,” Kageyama argued. “They wouldn’t.”

They lapsed into silence again. After a little while longer of watching the ball, Kageyama stood up.

“I’m going back to my room,” he said.

“I can walk you back,” Shouyou offered. He stood as well, running a few steps to catch up with Kageyama’s long strides.

“I can make it back by myself,” Kageyama said. “Stay here. Dance, if you want to. Or don’t? If that would still be an insult?”

Shouyou almost had to laugh at the constipated look on his face.

“No, it wouldn’t be an insult if you’d left for the night,” he told him. “I’d be free to go off dancing after you’re gone. Be careful, though. We have a lot of strange people in the castle tonight, and the guards can only do so much.”

“I think I’ll be fine,” Kageyama scoffed, and Shouyou swore he could see the ghost of a smile. Maybe they weren’t quite friends yet, but it was a start. Shouyou picked Kageyama’s hand up and kissed it, a friendly gesture he’d done enough times with other people that he thought nothing of it.

Kageyama looked shocked though, but before Shouyou could wonder if he’d broken some Seijoh rule again, the omega was leaving. Shouyou shrugged. If Kageyama was mad at him at training tomorrow, he could just apologize then. He’d meant no harm.

He was looking around the room, thinking he would go get Natsu and put her on his toes so he could teach her how to dance, when he smelled a spike of distress in the air. He was the only one close enough to the door to detect it, but he could smell a faint hint of jasmine that identified the scent as Kageyama’s.

He turned on his heel, pushing through the door and breaking into a run. Kageyama couldn’t have gotten far if Shouyou could still smell him. He turned a corner and finally saw why Kageyama smelled distressed.

Tadashi was alright on his own, but his omega Kei was a menace, and he tended to bring out the worst in Tadashi. They both had those grins on that meant they were saying the worst, and Kageyama…

Kageyama was facing them, not backing away, but unable to get past them, either. His hands were balled into fists at his sides.

“Look, see, you’re already running away,” Kei taunted. “Just a lost little prince with no kingdom left to rule. Maybe if you hadn’t lost the war for Seijoh, you’d be better off. Now all that’s left to do is spread your legs for our prince and you’ll really be lost.”

“Hey!” Shouyou snapped, running forward between Kageyama and the other two. “You’re being mean, leave him…”

“Enough!” Kageyama shouted. Shouyou turned to see him, and took an instinctive step back. Kageyama had tears in his eyes, cheeks red, hands shaking where they’d been curled into fists. “You’re all the same! I’d rather die than spend another week here!”

“Kageyama,” Shouyou tried, reaching for one of his hands, but Kageyama ripped away from him.

“No!” he shrieked. “You don’t get to use me as some pawn in your game. I’m not a fucking toy, I’m not going to let you just do what you want. _I will never agree to mate you!_ ”

Shouyou stood stock still as Kageyama whirled past Kei and Tadashi and broke into a sprint. He rounded on Tadashi and Kei.

“What was that?” he demanded.

“Just having a little fun with our new arrival,” Kei said dismissively. “He’ll be back to normal by tomorrow.”

“That’s not the point,” Shouyou argued. “You insulted him! Now he’s not going to want anything to do with any of us.”

“What are you, worried I lost you your easy fuck?” Kei taunted. “You’re the prince. You have your pick of the unbonded omegas in the castle. It’d be easier to screw one without a stick up their ass.”

“That’s not what this is about!” Shouyou shouted. “He’s not just some easy fuck.”

“Please,” Kei scoffed. “He’s an omega and we know what we are. The sooner he accepts that, the happier he’ll be.”

“He’s my friend and now he’s never going to want to talk to me again!” Shouyou snapped.

“Your friend?” Tadashi asked. “You let him walk around on his own. Clearly you don’t care that much.”

Shouyou wanted to argue back, but the fact of the matter was, he _should_ have walked Kageyama back to his room, and he knew it. He looked after the place Kageyama had run. He had a lot of apologizing to do tomorrow, if Kageyama even let him anywhere near.

He sighed. He’d thought he’d been doing so well, but clearly he had a long way to go. Kageyama might have been worth it, thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: Oikawa and Iwaizumi deal with the aftermath


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The AngstTM begins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who've followed me for a while, you know there's only so long I can go before angst happens. I've held off as long as I could.

Any quiet Tooru might have been enjoying was shattered when the door to his room was flung open. Tobio stormed in, too fast for Tooru to focus on him.

“Tobio, what…?” he tried to ask before Tobio dropped his head into his shoulder. He was shaking, and Tooru could feel wetness on his skin. “Tobio, what happened?”

Hajime was sitting up from where he’d been dozing, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as he took in the scene before him.

“Did someone hurt you?” he asked. Tooru gathered Tobio closer, checking for injuries. He may have been pregnant, but if someone had done something to his brother…

“No, I…no,” Tobio choked through his tears. For someone usually so loud, Tobio was shockingly silent when he cried.

“What happened?” Tooru asked, more urgently.

“They said…” Tobio took a deep breath, trying to compose himself enough to speak, “they said all I had to do now was spread my legs for the prince.”

It wasn’t lost on Tooru that he’d dropped the habit of calling the prince Hinata. It also wasn’t escaping him that whoever had said something to Tobio had probably said a lot worse. Tobio shut down when he got scared or hurt; he ran away. He wouldn’t be repeating the worst of what was said, so if what he managed to repeat was that bad…

“It’ll be okay,” Tooru tried to soothe his brother. “They won’t do anything to us. They can’t, or the king and queen will punish them.”

“No one would’ve talked to me like that in Seijoh,” Tobio sobbed, sounding more upset. “Even if I hadn’t been the prince, no one would’ve called me an omega slut like that!”

“That’s just how they are here, you can’t let it get to you…”

“I want to go home!”

Tooru felt his heart breaking. There was a desperation there he hadn’t heard before in Tobio. Desperation and sadness and anger and shame.

“We don’t have a home to go to anymore,” Tooru whispered, tears pricking at his eyes. He didn’t want to let them fall, but he was pregnant and his hormones were running wild and the distressed younger omega in his lap wasn’t helping anything. “We have nowhere to go.”

Tobio gasped against his shoulder, chest shaking as he desperately tried to draw in breath. The scent of his distress was reaching such peak levels that Tooru wanted to scream, but Tobio couldn’t even seem to breathe at all anymore. He was panicking, and Tooru was about to follow him.

“Stop,” Hajime said gently, pulling Tobio’s face out of Tooru’s shoulder and placing it on his own. He pulled Tooru closer, and the familiar scent of his mate calmed him from his state of near panic. “You’re both working yourselves up.”

“I miss Dad,” Tooru admitted. Tobio choked another sob, but at least he was breathing again. Tears had started free flowing down Tooru’s face, though he didn’t know when that had started. “He was trying to get to us when he died. When they killed him.”

“I can’t stay here anymore, Tooru,” Tobio whispered. “I can’t…I can’t just be some omega slut for them to play with. I can’t.”

“We don’t have an exit plan,” Tooru told him. “And even if we did, we have nowhere to go.”

“I want to go…”

“I know you want to go home, but home’s not there anymore!” Tooru cut him off. Maybe he was too harsh, but that was their reality. They would never be the princes of Seijoh again. That life was lost to them, and the part of Tooru that still believed in fairy tales cried out at that. He squashed it down with the part that had been trained to rule from birth. Wishful thinking would get them nowhere, and fairy tales were for children.

“So what do we do?” Hajime asked. He stroked soothing hands down both of their backs, scent stable to keep them both calm.

“Have you…?” Tooru paused. Neither of them were going to like what he was about to say. “Have you considered that maybe mating Hinata is an option?”

“What?” Tobio sat up, nearly falling off the bed if not for Hajime’s arm around him. “No, it’s not an option! It’s never going to be an option!”

“Just…think about it, all right?” Tooru sighed, fighting to keep calm in the face of the rising panic he could smell on Tobio again. “Karasuno doesn’t let their omegas stay single, or if they do, they treat them badly. You’ve already seen that. If you don’t agree to Hinata, they’ll eventually marry him off to someone else, that’s how royalty works.

“Then you can either deal with being single for the rest of your life, and all the consequences that come with that here – you know the consequences, don’t give me that look. They won’t protect you forever if you’re that determined to shun them in every way. Or, you can choose whatever new candidate they pull up in place of Hinata, and I can guarantee you you’ll never get a deal as good as him. You’ll get some older noble, someone who’s either already married and lost their mate or someone who was never able to get one on their own. Would you really be happy with either of those choices?”

Tobio gave him a dark glare, one that wasn’t usually aimed at him.

“You promised me you wouldn’t marry me off as long as I never tried for the throne,” he said hotly. Tooru sighed. At the time he’d made the promise, it had seen easy to keep.

“I made that promise when we were both princes of our own kingdom,” he said. “When I had the power to follow through on that promise. I don’t anymore, in case you haven’t noticed. Neither of us has any power anymore.”

“I can still refuse him. I have that power,” Tobio argued.

“But would you be happy like that?” Tooru said. “You can either give up being single, or give up being respected. At least with Hinata, you’re stronger than him. You could overpower him if it really came down to that. And…he defended me. He apologized to me. You could do a lot worse than him.”

“Just because I could do worse doesn’t mean I’m going to agree to it,” Tobio shot back. “I…if I ever do choose a mate, I want it to be because I love them. Like with you and Hajime. I don’t want to…just settle with someone, because it’s easy, or because someone else wants me to.”

“You might not get that kind of choice here,” Hajime broke in. He’d been quiet the entire time when Tooru had expected him to jump to Tobio’s defense after Tooru told them his idea. That meant whatever he had to say, he was saving it until after they finished talking to Tobio.

“We won’t ask you to do anything you don’t want to do,” Tooru said. “But…if you were operating under the assumption that agreeing to mate with Hinata isn’t an option…maybe consider it an option now. Even if you don’t end up doing it. There are worse places you could end up. Worse places even if we make it out of here.”

“I don’t...he doesn’t even like me,” Tobio said. “And I always fight with him.”

“But you have fun doing it,” Hajime suggested. “And he keeps coming back no matter how many times you yell at him.”

“He’s an idiot.”

“So are you.”

Tobio glared at him before settling down. He was markedly less upset than when he’d come storming in, his scent calmer, and he wasn’t crying anymore.

“You don’t have to make a choice now,” Tooru said. “For now, let’s just make the best of our situation. We still don’t have enough information about what’s going on outside the castle walls, and we can’t do anything if we don’t know what’s waiting outside for us. Keep on Hinata’s good side. Or keep doing what you’ve been doing since, you know, the yelling seems to work for the two of you.”

“I don’t know if I want to talk to him after everything,” Tobio admitted, looking down.

“What did he do when you were being taunted?” Tooru asked. “Was he joining in?”

“No,” Tobio answered. “He wasn’t there at first. I was just heading back here, and another alpha and omega stopped me. He stood in front of me and I used that chance to escape.”

“That’s all that happened?”

“I…may have told him that I’d never mate him. And the other alpha and omega may have heard me.”

“May?”

“Okay, definitely. I screamed it at him and they were right there.”

Tooru resisted the urge to drag his hands down his face, reminding himself that Tobio was young and prone to stupid, jumped conclusions.

“You realize he was probably going to defend you, right?” Tooru asked. “You just didn’t give him a chance.”

Tobio’s face went blank as he considered that. After a moment, it twisted into a scowl.

“It still doesn’t mean I want to mate him,” he snapped. “I’m going to bed.”

Tooru watched Tobio leave, a pleased smirk on his face. Maybe this was progress.

“Tooru,” he whipped his head around at the carefully dangerous tone in his mate’s voice. “What the actual fuck?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: yeah, Tooru, what the actual fuck?


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We find out what the actual fuck

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got on my angst roll and I'm not even remotely sorry.

“Tooru, what the actual fuck?”

Tooru turned. His expression said he knew exactly what Hajime was talking about, but because he was Tooru, he had to play dumb at first.

“What do you mean, what the actual fuck?” he asked, playing innocent. “What did I do?”

“Why are you trying to get Tobio to mate the prince?” Hajime asked. He wasn’t in the mood for one of Tooru’s games. Tooru wouldn’t do this without a reason, and he needed to know what the reason was. “Weren’t you trying to get him out of that?”

“I’m just saying he should consider it as an option,” Tooru protested. “He doesn’t have many to work with and this gives him more.”

“Tooru,” Hajime sighed. “Cut the shit. We’ve known each other since we were born; I know you have another motive for pushing that. What are you thinking?”

Tooru let the innocent face drop.

“Honestly?” he asked. “Rescue isn’t coming. Karasuno might be scared of a rebellion, but maybe we should be more scared of one.”

“How do you mean.”

“Think about it. We already lost the war. What makes you think we could win a rebellion with most of our soldiers gone?”

Hajime made a humming noise to let Tooru know he was following.

“And even if we could, do you think we could just remake Seijoh? We’d be so weak, if Karasuno didn’t take us over again, someone else will. And a lot of our people would die. Maybe too many. At least if they stay peaceful here, they can form their own community. They don’t necessarily have to assimilate. We can still keep our values even if we’re part of Karasuno now.”

“Do you really believe that?”

“I have to believe something. And I know for a fact that most of our people will die if they try to rebel. Even if it succeeds, would that really be worth it?”

“Don’t you think the people have the right to decide that for themselves?” Hajime asked. “And how does Tobio play into that?”

“We don’t get to make the choice for our people, but they’ll probably take their cues from us,” Tooru went on. “If they hear their younger prince is refusing to mate the heir to Karasuno’s throne and their older prince and his mate are distancing themselves from the rest of the castle, they could take it as a cue to fight back. But if Tobio marries Hinata, if we stop hiding ourselves away, maybe they’d take it as a cue to back down.”

“You really do have a shitty personality, but it’s not like you to back down so easily,” Hajime said. Tooru hung his head. He looked smaller than Hajime ever wanted to see him.

“It would save a lot of lives, but it’s not just that I want to use Tobio for a political move,” Tooru said. “I really do want him to be happy, and where we are right now, Hinata might be his only option.”

“You think submitting himself to an alpha he barely knows in a kingdom where they don’t respect omegas is the best option for him to be happy.”

“If I thought he could stay single forever and be happy here, I never would have said anything, but that’s not how Karasuno works! We’re not in Seijoh anymore!”

“You promised him you wouldn’t force him to marry anyone, no matter what,” Hajime reminded him.

“When I was the next ruler of Seijoh, that promise was easy to make,” Tooru said. Hajime remembered when they were younger, when Tooru and Tobio had damn near hated each other, when Tooru had been so jealous of Tobio’s potential to take his title as crown prince he’d done everything in his power to sabotage his younger brother.

There had been calls throughout the kingdom upon Tobio’s birth – and Misaki’s death – for Tobio to replace Tooru. Misaki’s family was closely related to the royal family while Tooru’s mother Hana had been lowborn. With both queens dead with only one child each produced, the kingdom had worried for the state of the line of succession. The line with the more royal blood seemed like the best choice to them, which meant the younger prince suddenly became the favorite of the people.

Tooru had been jealous beyond belief, desperate to keep his place at the top and too terrified of Tobio coming up behind him to worry about the threats ahead of him. He’d very nearly lost it all, and in the end it was Tobio, twelve year old Tobio who had never shown any interest in playing the game, who ended it all.

In the wake of one of their friends being married off to the then-prince of Shiratorizawa, Tobio had come to Tooru with a request.

“Never make me mate with anyone,” he’d said. It had been blunt and so to the point that Tooru hadn’t had a suitable response for a moment.

“You know nobody made Satori marry Ushijima,” Tooru had finally manage to say. “He choose to after Ushijima courted him.”

“But there’s no way he could have said no to a prince, right?” Tobio had asked, baby face crumpled in confusion, trying to articulate his thoughts. “A prince who’s going to rule his kingdom someday. Like you. He couldn’t say no.”

“He could’ve if he’d wanted to.”

“If you promise to never make me mate with anyone, I promise I’ll never go near the throne,” Tobio had said. “I don’t want it. I just want to be a soldier. So don’t make me marry some alpha from some other kingdom who won’t let me fight.”

Hajime had privately thought that Tobio, with such little knowledge of the game being played under his nose, was able to cut through the bullshit and see the truth for what it was. That, or he’d gotten lucky in looking for what he wanted for himself, but surprisingly enough, it had resolved the matter. With the admission that Tobio wanted nothing to do with the throne, and the spreading of that admission, the kingdom stopped challenging Tooru’s right to rule. Tooru had lost any reason for hating his brother, and over the next six years, they’d been able to heal their relationship and become truly friends.

“I would’ve worried about him even if we’d never left Seijoh,” Tooru admitted. “He wouldn’t even meet with most suitors who came to meet him, and even though I’d never make him marry one, if he’d kept that up eventually they would’ve stopped coming. He doesn’t deserve to live out the rest of his life alone just because he’s afraid of what love would do to him.”

“Isn’t that still his choice to make?”

“I wish it could be, but we’ve lost the right to let him hide himself away in peace.” Tooru took a deep breath. “I really do think Hinata is good for him. I know you think I’m just trying to make the best of a bad situation, but when was the last time you saw him get this close to anyone? Especially this fast. I don’t think even he realizes it yet, but Hinata’s done what it took us years to do in a matter of weeks.”

“So you’re doing this for him?”

“I’m allowed to have more than one motive!” Tooru defended himself. “Does that…does that make me a bad person? I want what’s best for Tobio, but I want what’s best for my people too. Maybe they’re the same thing. Am I a bad person for wanting them to be the same thing?”

Hajime sighed and pulled his mate into a hug.

“No. It doesn’t.” He heaved a deep sigh. “I see where you’re coming from. I do. Maybe you’re right. But he’s not going to agree to any of that easily and we both know it.”

“I know. But I have to start somewhere.”

It had been a long time since Hajime had heard Tooru sound so lost. Even when they’d first arrived in Karasuno, he’d had a purpose in trying to get them out. Now that purpose was lost to him.

“We won’t be stuck in this limbo forever,” Hajime said, trying to soothe his mate. “We’re strong. We won’t be broken so easily. And the day an alpha tries to force Tobio to submit to anything is the day that alpha loses his balls. From what I’ve heard, Hinata’s already learning that Tobio isn’t so easy to subdue. He won’t go down without a fight.”

“I want to go home,” Tooru breathed. Hajime pretended he didn’t notice the tears starting to soak into his shirt. “It’s stupid and childish, I know, but I want to go home. I miss our gardens. I miss our library. I miss our friends. I miss my dad.”

“It’s not stupid to want to go home,” Hajime told him. “I want to go home too.”

“But that doesn’t help us,” Tooru complained. “We can’t go home. Ever. Home doesn’t exist anymore.”

“But it’s still not stupid for wanting something, even when you can’t have it,” Hajime tried to soothe him.

“I don’t have any parents left,” Tooru whispered. “You and Tobio are the only family I have left.”

“I don’t know where my parents are,” Hajime said. His eyes were starting to burn. “My mom’s probably dead. She was out there fighting. My dad was at home with my sister. I don’t know where either of them are. Maybe they survived. Maybe they didn’t.”

“We’ll find them,” Tooru promised shakily. “Even if we never get out of here, we have to find out what happened to them. They can’t keep us from that forever.”

They were quiet then, listening to the sounds of their own breathing as their tears dried. Tomorrow they would be ready to go out and fight tooth and nail for their people and for themselves. Tonight, they grieved like they hadn’t allowed themselves to since they’d arrived at Karasuno.

Tooru grieved for his lost family, for the difficult situation he’d been placed in and for the pain it brought on his brother. Hajime grieved for the family he didn’t know the fate of and his mate and surrogate brother, both omegas he should’ve been protecting and both he was failing to protect.

Tomorrow, they would be strong. Tonight, they could allow themselves a moment of weakness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: a wild Sugawara appears


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A wild Suga appears and a reconciliation is made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some happiness to be had after the angst fest I've been writing (yes I know I still gave Suga sad backstory but everyone gets to be sad at some point in this so I don't feel too bad). For those who've been following me for a while, spot the OC who _is definitely not in my outline this time either_

Tobio was lying on his side, staring at the bright colored curtains around his bed. He’d just finished bathing after another training session with Hinata and Asahi. While they hadn’t been outright fighting, there was a strain that hadn’t been there before. Or maybe it had always been there and he had only noticed now.

He couldn’t stop thinking about what Tooru had said. That mating Hinata was an option. He wasn’t sure if he could see it. Hinata wasn’t bad, he guessed. He had fun fighting him at training sessions. And he’d been nice enough at the ball, even if everything had gone to shit afterwards.

But did that mean he could marry Hinata? That he could kiss him, mate with him, bear him children? He wasn’t so sure. It wasn’t that he _didn’t_ want any of those things. Having a partner would be nice, and while Tobio hadn’t always been a fan of children in the abstract, since seeing Tooru pregnant, seeing him and Hajime glowing with pride and happiness over it, he didn’t think he would mind having children either.

He didn’t want to get mated or have children just to have them, though. It was something straight out of the heroes’ stories Satori used to read to him, but he wanted to mate for love if he ever mated at all. He wanted the kind of partnership he saw in Tooru and Hajime, not some alpha he didn’t care about who would only try to take away his freedom.

Did he care about Hinata? Maybe. Not enough to give up all the freedom he’d spent his life fighting for, though.

A knock at his door made him whip his head up, away from the blank stare. The silver haired queen was poking his head around the door, warm brown eyes focusing on him.

“Can I come in?” he asked. Tobio nodded, straightening. He hadn’t spoken to the queen at all since that first day in the throne room, but he’d seemed all right. He’d been stronger than most of the omegas Tobio had seen since.

“What do you want, highness?” Tobio asked. It seemed weird to give such a lofty title when the queen looked so down to earth, but Tooru had impressed upon him the importance of respecting the people around him in the interest of safety.

“You don’t have to be so formal,” the queen smiled gently. “You can just call me Koushi.”

Tobio must have made a face, because the queen laughed.

“Too informal?” he asked, and Tobio nodded. “I should have known. Seijoh has never been fond of given names for casual acquaintances. How about Suga? It’s what the people here nicknamed me when I first married Daichi.”

“Suga-san,” Tobio tried out, and Suga smiled at him.

“See? Better than that stuffy “highness” business.” Tobio wasn’t entirely sure what to make of Suga so far, but he didn’t feel like he was in any danger from the older omega. “Anyways, you’re probably wondering why I’m here?”

Tobio nodded.

“I thought you might like some Seijoh style clothes,” Suga told him. “I noticed at the ball, but you’re not exactly comfortable in our style, are you?”

“It’s just…so loose,” Tobio said, trying not to be too rude. “I feel exposed when I move around in it.”

“I understand,” Suga said. “Would you mind letting our tailor take your measurements?”

Tobio scanned Suga’s face for any sign of trouble, but he looked open and honest, and after a moment Tobio nodded. Suga grinned at him, running to the door to beckon someone in. A small beta woman trailed after him when he returned.

“Kageyama, this is Oda Kaede,” Suga said, gesturing to the woman. “She’s made clothes for people across the kingdoms, and she says she knows how to make things in the style of Seijoh.”

“I can do what is asked, yes,” she said, and Tobio noticed her accent wasn’t quite the louder style of Karasuno nor the clipped of Seijoh. It was something entirely different, something he couldn’t place. “Stand in front of the mirror with your arms out, hmm?”

Tobio stood to do as she asked. He’d barely ever glanced in the full length mirror his room boasted, but now he was given an unbroken look at himself while Oda moved around him, nimble fingers measuring the length and width of his arms and around his chest.

He focused on himself instead of her. He hadn’t lost any muscle tone from his time in Seijoh, not with all the training he’d been doing with Hinata, but his cheekbones looked sharper, like he was thinner. Maybe he was, though he hadn’t noticed himself eating less. It made his eyes look absolutely gigantic, brilliant blue eyes he’d been told he inherited from his mother staring back at him.

“These clothes,” Oda interrupted his thoughts, though her statement was directed at Suga, “they make the job harder, you see?”

She pulled the shirt taut against Tobio’s chest in an effort to get a good measurement, but there was too much material.

“Can you take it off?” she asked, not unkindly. Tobio nodded. Neither Oda nor Suga truly scared him that much. He pulled his shirt off, leaving it on a nearby table. Oda quietly resumed her work, and Tobio caught Suga’s eyes in the mirror.

“You have a lot of scars, Kageyama,” he said simply.

“I’ve been training as a soldier for a long time,” Tobio replied. “They just kind of happened.”

“Still, you’re so young to have so many wounds,” Suga told him. Tobio didn’t think he was just talking about scars anymore.

“You’re not that much older than me,” Tobio said, though now that he said it out loud he wasn’t so sure.

“Well, my oldest child is almost nineteen, so that should tell you that I’m older than I look,” Suga laughed.

“How old is your youngest?” Tobio asked, because it seemed like a decent question.

“Natsu is three,” Suga replied, and his eyes shone with pride.

“And…those are your only two children?” Tobio asked. He was never good with talking to people, but Suga didn’t seem to mind.

“You look like you want to ask me something, but you’re not sure if you should,” Suga said.

“I thought…Karasuno omegas usually had more children,” Tobio said, though it wasn’t really a question. He’d never paid much attention when his tutors talked about other kingdoms. He was the second son. He didn’t need to know.

“Yes, usually we do,” Suga said. “I had Shouyou right at eighteen, as most noble Karasuno omegas do with their first child. Had all gone well, I should have been having my next child a few years later.”

“So what happened?”

“Bad luck,” Suga told him. “The first one after Shouyou was about two years later. I had just gotten pregnant again when a bad plague came through. I survived, but the baby didn’t.”

Tobio didn’t know what to say to that, but Suga didn’t seem to need prompting to continue, and Tobio had to admit he was curious as to where this story would go.

“The next one was four years after that, and I was sure I’d had enough time to rest and heal enough to carry a baby. I carried this one longer, but after a nasty fall from a horse, I lost that baby too. The doctors told me I should rest for much longer before trying again, since I nearly broke my back when I fell.

“I waited almost six years. I really thought I’d keep that one, I was so close. I still don’t know what went wrong, nobody does, but I woke up one day and the baby wasn’t moving inside me anymore…I just knew.

“Natsu was four years later, and I was so careful. I barely left the castle, anyone who had so much as a sniffle wasn’t allowed near me. Daichi was hovering the entire nine months, I’m not sure which of us was more nervous. But I had her safely, and now she’s mine forever.”

“I’m…sorry,” Tobio said haltingly. He wasn’t sure how to offer comfort, especially since Suga didn’t seem too sad.

“Thus is life,” Suga shrugged. “I have my two children, and I wouldn’t trade them for the world. In the end, I think it was all worth it.”

Tobio realized that Oda had finished her work and was sketching away at a notebook, politely keeping out of their conversation. When the lull prompted her to look up, she addressed Suga.

“They should be ready in a week,” she said. “A full wardrobe of Seijoh style clothes?”

“Yes, that should do it,” Suga agreed. “Thank you.”

“Thank you,” Tobio said as she left. “I don’t know why you’re doing this, but thank you.”

“Just because you’re a bit of an unusual guest doesn’t mean you can’t be happy here,” Suga said. “I know you don’t want to be stuck here, but it doesn’t have to be all bad, right?”

Tobio wasn’t really sure how to respond to that. Yes, he’d been angry and upset more than he could ever remember being in the last month, but there had also been times when it wasn’t horrible.

“Why do you want me to mate Hinata?” he asked. It was probably too blunt, and he didn’t expect a real answer, but Suga’s face grew serious.

“I don’t want any chances of trouble from your people,” he admitted. “We’re trying to assimilate them all into Karasuno, and transfers of power are rarely easy. If they had a leader tied to us, it might make everything less painless for anyone involved. I’m sure your brother was smart enough to figure this all out on his own, wasn’t he?”

Tobio didn’t really want to tell Suga that he’d been banking on just what Suga was most afraid of. A rebellion would be a good thing for him. But things being painful for everyone…did that mean Seijoh people would be hurt too if they rebelled? Of course they would, everyone got hurt in a fight, but would it be so bad his people couldn’t recover?

He couldn’t allow that after he’d failed them so badly during the war.

“I’ll let you get back to your day,” Suga said, walking to the door. “I hope you know that you can come to me with any problems. Any insults from my people to you, anything you want from me, just ask, and I’ll do my best.”

“Thank you,” Tobio murmured again. He was allowed just a moment of silence before frantic tapping on his door called him to open it.

Hinata was standing there, head bowed, some kind of food in his hands.

“I’m sorry!” he shouted, making Tobio jump. “I should have walked you back the night of the ball, I never should have let those two get near enough to insult you. I was a bad alpha, and I’m sorry!”

He bent forward at the waist, extending the food forward, which Tobio could smell now was some kind of meat bun.

“Please stop being quiet at training,” Hinata went on. “It’s weird. It was more fun before.”

“I…” Tobio tried to speak, not knowing what to say. Hinata looked up at him hopefully, though, so in lieu of an answer he grabbed the meat bun out of Hinata’s hand. He shoved it into his mouth, relishing the spicy taste to the meat.

“Just keep doing what you’ve been doing,” Hinata said. “I’ll make sure no one insults you like that again. I’ll do better at being your alpha, you’ll see! Don’t miss training tomorrow, I’ll beat you for sure!”

He was racing away before Tobio even had a chance to swallow his bite. Tobio watched him go, throat closing around the food. What had Hinata called himself? What was he planning on doing?

_His alpha?_

Why did a part of him…not hate that? Why was he excited at the idea of leaving the strain between them behind?

_His alpha?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: a montage of falling in love


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A montage of idiots falling in like.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god this chapter was a monster and I need to sleep for 10,000 years. You'll notice the dancing scene. I didn't sit through three years of cotillion to never write a dancing scene. Also, heats are a thing. Also, engagement?

After Hinata’s apology, training sessions went back to how they’d been before. They fought with each other, shouted at each other, and in the end, Tobio won. Hinata was starting to suck less with practice, though.

One time, he’d even managed to get Tobio’s sword away from him. The problem was, he’d done it by essentially throwing his sword at Tobio, making Tobio drop it out of surprise more than anything else. Then, instead of stopping the fight and picking up their swords – as any _reasonable_ person would have done, he’d complained to Tooru and Hajime later – Hinata had full on launched himself at Tobio with a scream.

Any sort of form was lost quickly as Tobio, unable to get out of the way, had to fend off the blows Hinata aimed at him. They rolled on the ground, shouting at each other like little kids, until finally Tobio was able to use his size and strength to pin Hinata down.

They glared at each other, panting, before Hinata broke out into breathless laughter. Tobio just stared down at him.

“No one’s ever…called me a dumbass before,” he gasped through the giggles. “No one’s ever argued with me like you do. No one else would’ve fought me like this.”

“Why are you laughing?” Tobio asked. Maybe Hinata had lost his mind. Maybe he should get off the smaller alpha and run.

“I’ve never had this much fun with anyone before!” Hinata said, finally getting his laughter mostly under control. His face was glowing red from the exertion, and his warm brown eyes were shining. “No one else would dare to do this, but you do.”

Tobio couldn’t help but crack a grin at that. He saw where Hinata was coming from. He’d been sparring with other soldiers all his life, training with different weapons, but he’d never had someone throw their sword at him or try to tackle him.

Hinata was something else.

“Your face is scary,” Hinata complained, shoving a hand in front of his field of vision.

“Dumbass! I was born with this face!” He had to let go of Hinata to shove the hand out of his eyes, and Hinata used it to roll out and away from him. He picked up his fallen sword, standing on guard and waiting for Tobio to pick up his.

“One more,” he said, and he looked even redder than he had when Tobio had pinned him down. Tobio lifted his sword.

“One more.”

***

“Dance with me!”

It wasn’t a request, not really, though Shouyou had long since learned there was no moving Kageyama on issues he didn’t want to be moved on. Still, sometimes going in with a blunt demand was the best approach.

“What? No,” Kageyama snapped. He’d been sitting quietly when Shouyou had found him in the garden, and maybe surprising him with a demand wasn’t the best choice, but Shouyou was all in now.

“Come on, it’ll be fun!” Shouyou insisted, holding out his hand.

“Why?”

“It’s my birthday next week, and there’ll be another ball,” Shouyou said. “I want to make sure you know Karasuno dances. I don’t know what you do over in Seijoh.”

Kageyama made a face at him, one that Shouyou was slowly learning to interpret as embarrassment.

“I have to dance with you at the ball?”

“Well, yeah. It’s my birthday, so it would be weird if I sat on the sidelines the entire time,” Shouyou shrugged. “We’re friends, aren’t we?”

Kageyama looked taken aback.

“Are we?”

“I think we are,” Shouyou said, more confident than he really felt. “So you should dance with me for my birthday! Please? I won’t ask for more than one dance.”

Kageyama’s face crumpled again, and suddenly what it meant became clear to Shouyou. Maybe it should have been obvious.

“You can’t dance, can you?”

“I…”

“I can do something Kageyama can’t do!” Shouyou cheered. That cleared that crumpled, vulnerable look away from Kageyama’s face faster than anything else would. His eyes narrowed into the competitive look he got during training sessions.

“I can do anything you can do!” he snapped. “Just…show me how to do it.”

Shouyou held out his hand more insistently this time, and Kageyama huffed before taking it.

“Here, you’re taller than me, so put your hand on my back,” Shouyou instructed, moving Kageyama’s had for him. He let his own hand rest on Kageyama’s shoulder. “Now, follow my feet.”

He stepped back, and Kageyama followed him. He stepped with his other foot, and Kageyama followed him again.

Just from a steps point of view, Kageyama was doing well. He was a swordsman, after all, with years of training worked into his body, and there was a casual grace that followed all his movements. However, he was stiff, almost pulling away from Shouyou every time they moved.

“Hey,” Shouyou said, stopping their motion. “Relax.”

Kageyama gave him a look not unlike Hitoka’s when Natsu ran off too fast.

“Dancing is supposed to be fun,” Shouyou told him. “Relax. Trust me to lead. I know what I’m doing.”

“I’ll believe that when I see it,” Kageyama said, but he rolled his shoulders and let them drop from where they’d been inching up towards his ears.

“Trust me.” Shouyou stepped again, and while they were still clumsy, Kageyama’s movements were less stiff. Shouyou started to hum a waltz to himself, more to keep his own time than anything else, but when he noticed Kageyama’s steps smooth out in time with the music, he started humming louder.

Kageyama was doing well, as he always did when he rose to a challenge, and Shouyou grinned.

“Spin me,” he instructed.

“What?”

“Use your hand on my back and spin me under our arms,” Shouyou said, lifting their joined hands to demonstrate. Kageyama still had that look, so Shouyou stepped under their arms, spinning as he went. “Like that.”

He came back close, hand back on Kageyama’s shoulder, and now when he moved back Kageyama followed him with ease.

“See? You can dance just fine,” he said, squeezing Kageyama’s shoulder.

“Of course I can,” Kageyama snorted. “Anything you can do, I can do.”

“You still can’t dance better than I can,” Shouyou argued, but he was laughing.

***

“Stop fidgeting. You’re fine,” Hinata whispered under his breath. Tobio did his best to listen. In truth, he was feeling a little more comfortable than the last time he’d been to one of these things. Oda had managed to finish making his clothes, and he felt much less exposed with the sleeves that hugged his arms and the collar that covered his chest. It was a little warm, being the summer solstice, but he was better than last time.

On the other hand, he was much more prominent, sitting front and center next to Hinata. It made sense, since this was a party for Hinata’s birthday, but somehow he’d forgotten that fact. The king was making some speech thanking all the guests for coming to celebrate the prince’s nineteenth birthday, and he could feel all the eyes on him. The younger prince of Seijoh. The one who lost the war.

“Do you want to dance?” Hinata asked. Tobio stopped staring at his plate to look at him. “You can leave after, if you want. Just dance with me once. Put on your show.”

“Won’t you be bored if I leave so early?” Tobio asked. While he wasn’t exactly comfortable, it didn’t really seem right to leave Hinata alone on his birthday.

“I promised to dance with Natsu tonight, so I’ll be okay,” Hinata said, shrugging. Tobio still thought he would stay here, even if he was uncomfortable. If he and Hinata were really… _friends_ …he should probably do that.

“So let’s dance,” Tobio said, shaking off his nerves. He’d practiced this. He knew what to do. Hinata waved at the musicians before leading Tobio out in the open space in front of the thrones.

Tobio rested his hand on Hinata’s shoulder blade, letting Hinata hold on to his hand and shoulder. The music started, and Hinata led them. It was easy enough to follow, now that Tobio knew what he was doing, and Hinata was a good dancer.

Not that Tobio would ever admit that.

It was…fun he could admit to that much. He was having fun, despite everything. Hinata’s eyes were shining, and he was laughing as he twirled. Tobio could feel himself smiling, but he couldn’t help it. Hinata’s laugh was infectious.

The music stopped, and Tobio was almost disappointed. He could either leave or go back to feeling uncomfortable under the eyes of everyone in the hall, and he didn’t really want to do either of those things.

He was just about to ask Hinata for another dance when he saw a silver glint in the corner of his eye. Without even stopping to think, he was shoving Hinata to the ground, covering him with his body.

Hinata had yelled something when Tobio tackled him, but now he was still and strangely quiet.

“You’re bleeding,” he finally whispered. Tobio looked down, and he was, in fact, bleeding from his shoulder. He looked behind him to see a knife on the floor. It must have caught on his shoulder when he tackled Hinata.

He looked back up to see the guards going after a man in the crowd. While Tobio didn’t recognize the man personally, he did recognize him as a man of Seijoh descent.

Tooru had been right. There really was a resistance movement from the remains of Seijoh.

He looked down at Hinata, wide eyed and more silent than Tobio had ever seen him.

“Are you all right?” he asked gruffly. Hinata nodded before raising his hand, hovering over the cut on his shoulder. It wasn’t bad. He could feel that it wasn’t deep enough to cause any real damage.

He didn’t realize it until later, not until he talked to Tooru, but he’d defended Hinata without even thinking about it.

“Your first instinct was to protect him,” Tooru had said with a barely concealed grin. “That doesn’t mean nothing.”

Tobio had grunted at him and told him to fuck off. He wasn’t helping.

***

Shouyou really shouldn’t laugh. He shouldn’t. It wasn’t that funny.

It was completely _hilarious_.

In the hopes of escaping the midsummer’s heat, they’d all gone outside and hid in the shade. Since it was Natsu’s birthday, she’d insisted on playing with Shouyou and Kageyama. Shouyou was more than happy to have his little sister along, but Kageyama looked completely terrified of her.

The upside was he was more than willing to sit perfectly still and let her climb all over him, but he had a look of pure terror on his face while she did so. He only spared the occasional glare at Shouyou, his attention always brought back to Natsu.

“Hinata-sama, that’s not very nice,” Hitoka reproached.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but,” Shouyou burst into hysterical laughter again as Kageyama lurched forward to stop Natsu from falling to the ground, looking more afraid than Hitoka ever had. “I never thought I’d see the great Yamayama undone by a _four year old_.”

Kageyama glared at him.

“Shut up, dumbass,” he muttered, sending Natsu towards him with a gentle push. “She’s your sister, you watch her.”

“But she wanted to play with you for her birthday,” Shouyou countered. He picked Natsu up anyway, setting her down sitting so he could play patty cake with her. She’d just discovered the game with Hitoka, and it was her new favorite thing. “Come on, you can play patty cake. It’s not hard. Hitoka, show him?”

Hitoka nodded, holding up her hands for Kageyama as Shouyou turned back to Natsu. He played a few rounds with her before sending her back to Kageyama.

He’d learned quickly from Hitoka, tapping gently against Natsu’s palms as she sang the rhyme. Hitoka scooted over next to Shouyou.

“He’s good with her,” she said conspiratorially.

“He’s not that great,” Shouyou argued, looking at Kageyama’s furrowed brow and complete concentration on his children’s game.

“He’s learning, but he’s good with her,” Hitoka insisted. “He’s never had a baby sibling to take care of like you have. He’s going to be a good mother someday.”

“You really think so?” Shouyou asked. He watched Natsu laugh her head off as Kageyama continued to focus all his attention on their game.

“You two are going to have such pretty babies,” Hitoka sighed. Shouyou whipped his head around to stare at her. “With his blue eyes and your red hair, they’re going to be gorgeous.”

“Our…babies…?” Shouyou stuttered. Hitoka looked directly at him.

“Well of course?” she sounded confused. “He likes you, it’s only a matter of time until he agrees to mate you. You need children to have heirs, don’t you?”

“He likes me?”

Hitoka gestured to where Kageyama was still playing with Natsu, looking much less terrified now that he had a working plan.

“Would he have done that when he first got here?” she asked. “Would he even be out here if he was the same as he was when he first got here?”

“We’re friends,” Shouyou said firmly. Hitoka didn’t look convinced. “We are! But there’s no way he’d agree to mate me, and I don’t really blame him anymore. We’re the reason he lost his home.”

“You like him,” Hitoka realized softly.

“I…yeah. I do,” Shouyou sighed. “For whatever good it does.”

“Then court him,” Hitoka suggested. “Court him for real. Pursue him like you really want him as your mate. Woo him.”

“It’s Kageyama,” Shouyou protested. “He doesn’t really do wooing.”

“Then do that thing you guys do where you yell at each other and you end up laughing and he ends up smiling a little.”

Shouyou grimaced. She’d watched them run into a wall racing each other a few days ago. It wasn’t his proudest moment.

“Seriously,” Hitoka said. “Court him. You two like each other more than you think you do.”

***

“Kageyama-san?” Tobio looked up from where he was absently doodling. Asahi wasn’t able to train them today, and Hinata had some important crown prince matters to deal with, so for the first time in a while, Tobio was bored.

A black haired beta, Ennoshita if Tobio remembered correctly, was standing in the door to his room.

“The queen wants you in the throne room,” he said simply.

“Why?” Tobio asked.

“You have a guest.”

Tobio was curious, following Ennoshita quickly. Who would come to see him?

He got his answer when he walked into the throne room from the entrance behind the thrones. He’d recognize that red hair and upturned mouth anywhere.

“Satori?” he asked, walking out in front of the king and queen to see the older omega.

“Tobio!” Satori cried, enveloping him in a hug. Normally, Tobio would pull away from that kind of contact, but this was Satori and he’d always been touchy. He hugged back.

He hadn’t seen Satori in years, but not much had changed. He looked a little older than he had at eighteen when he’d gone off to marry the future king of Shiratorizawa, a few more lines and wrinkles, but the bright hair and forever smiling mouth hadn’t changed a bit.

“What are you doing here?” Tobio asked.

“I’m here on behalf of Shiratorizawa,” Satori said. “We’re trying to see if the king and queen here would be so gracious as to let you and your brother go.”

“We won’t,” the king said unequivocally. “Oikawa and Kageyama are both our guests here and they will remain so. You have nothing we want in return for them.”

“Not even the promise of no war?” Satori asked, tone the same, but eyes glinting with something dangerous. Tobio shivered. He was reminded why he’d always been happy Satori was on his side.

“You’d really start a war over two princes? Seijoh doesn’t exist anymore, your ally is gone,” the queen argued.

“I was born in Seijoh, and both of the princes are my personal friends,” Satori said flippantly. “So yes, I might be willing to fight for their freedom.”

“You’d have a lot to go through to get to them,” Suga said. “A lot of people would die needlessly.”

Satori turned to Tobio.

“Are they treating you well here?” he asked. Tobio nodded, thinking of how Suga had come with a tailor because he’d been uncomfortable with the clothes here, how Hinata had apparently defended Tooru from another alpha, how despite how much he argued with Hinata, he considered him a friend. “Do you want us to come get you out? We’ll come if you call.”

_A lot of people would die needlessly._

Tobio shook his head. He’d already caused enough needless death. Besides, it wasn’t so bad here.

“Stay in touch, then,” Satori said, as if he understood what Tobio was thinking. Maybe he did. He’d left his home when he was Tobio’s age to marry into an alliance. He probably understood Tobio better than anyone else here. “If they mistreat you, send a message. We’ll get you out.”

Tobio nodded again.

“Thank you.”

Satori turned and walked out of the throne room. Maybe Tobio imagined the sigh of relief from Suga and the king.

“Are you really happy here?” Suga asked.

“I’m not unhappy,” Tobio replied. He wasn’t. No one had insulted him since that first ball two months ago, no one had tried to hurt him, and there had barely been any mention of mating him to Hinata since that first day.

Dare he say, he was almost happy here?

***

Shouyou raced to the wing of the castle where Kageyama’s room was. The slacker had skipped training, and Shouyou was going to let him have it. He was getting so close to beating him, too!

He wheeled to a stop when he saw Oikawa standing in front of Kageyama’s door. The older omega was extremely pregnant, seven months along and almost too huge to walk now. He looked up at Shouyou like he’d been expecting him.

“Tobio can’t come to training today,” he said simply. “He’s in heat.”

“Heat?” Shouyou asked.

“Yes, heat, that thing omegas go into every three months,” Oikawa sighed, though he looked more worried than annoyed.

“Does he have…a heat partner?” Shouyou asked. If he’d had one back in Seijoh, they were probably either dead or missing. Was Kageyama suffering unnecessarily?

“Seijoh omegas don’t have heat partners,” Oikawa scoffed. “We don’t sleep with anyone we don’t intend to mate.”

“Isn’t that cruel?” Shouyou asked. “Doesn’t that hurt?”

“Of course it does, but that’s how it’s done for us,” Oikawa said. “He’s gotten himself through heats since he presented at twelve, just like I did. Just like every other Seijoh omega does.”

“I could…”

“No!” Oikawa cut him off. “Even if not for the obvious…he hasn’t consented before he went into heat, and he can’t consent now he’s in it. He’s not in his right mind.”

“It doesn’t have to be me,” Shouyou said softly. “I can find him another alpha, or a beta if he’d prefer that. He shouldn’t have to suffer on his own.”

“That’s all he can do now,” Oikawa replied, though he didn’t look angry. “The best thing you can do for him is let him rest. He’ll get through this week and then he’ll be fine for the next three months.”

“Wait here,” Shouyou said, turning and sprinting for the kitchens. He’d just thought of something he could do, even if he couldn’t be with Kageyama in his heat.

He spotted the head chef, who’d always had a soft spot for him, and flagged her down.

“Kageyama’s in heat,” he gasped through his heaving breaths. “Do you have any cold water? And meat buns, he likes meat buns. And maybe ice cream, since it’s so hot?”

“Going to take care of him?” she asked, motioning some of her people towards the coolers in the back, set on top of a flowing spring that kept them cool even in the heat of summer. Shouyou nodded. “Good man! It’s always nice to see an attentive alpha.”

She piled him with meat buns, a full pitcher of cold water, and some vanilla ice cream.

“Good luck!” she called after him. “They can get insatiable in the hot months.”

Shouyou ignored that last part as he raced back to Kageyama’s room. Oikawa was still standing there, though he’d found a chair in the time Shouyou had been gone.

“Can you give these to him?” he asked, shoving all the food and cold water into Oikawa’s arms. “I know he’s probably hot, and he needs to stay cool, and drink plenty of water, and make sure he eats. Did I forget anything?”

“I…” Oikawa looked taken aback. “No, this is good. Thank you.”

“If he wants a heat partner later, or next time, let me know,” Shouyou said. “It doesn’t have to be me. He doesn’t have to suffer through this alone here.”

He took off before the strong jasmine scent around him could get even more tempting. He’d never smelled something so delicious.

***

“Hey,” a soft voice said. Tobio looked up to see Tooru walking in. The primal part of him wanted to snap at another omega so close to him during his heat, but this was just Tooru. He tried to lift his head, but all he got was a whine. He was so _hot_. He’d long since kicked all the blankets off his bed, though Tooru had covered him with a thin sheet in the hopes of soaking up some of his sweat. He was in a bit of a lull between waves, so his head was clearer than it had been an hour ago.

Tooru walked closer, and Tobio caught a hint of sun warmed grass. He knew that scent.

“Hinata,” he moaned.

“Yes, he came by,” Tooru said. “He brought you some gifts.”

Tooru handed him a cup of cold water.

“Drink up,” he instructed. “You’re dehydrated, and this will cool you down.”

Tobio gulped the water down, whining as he felt the cold seep through his stomach and chest.

“Here. Eat,” Tooru said, hanging him a meat bun. Tobio tried to nibble at it, but he was too hot to really enjoy the taste of meat. “Too heavy?”

Tobio nodded. Tooru took the meat bun back, instead handing Tobio a bowl of ice cream. Tobio attacked it. The cold food felt so good sliding down his throat, waking him a little from the haze of heat.

“Better?” Tooru asked.

“Yes,” Tobio replied. He was still hot, still aching everywhere on the inside, and still miserable, but now he felt a little cooler at least. “Did Hinata bring this?”

“He sure did,” Tooru confirmed. “I think he was coming to yell at you for skipping training, but when he found out you were in heat, he raced off to the kitchen to find food for you. He’s acting like a nervous alpha with an omega in heat.”

“I am in heat,” Tobio said. He could feel another wave coming, and he shifted his hips unconsciously as he felt his insides twist. He could feel his hole, empty and begging to be filled, and slick dripping out. “Can you send him in?”

“I already sent him away,” Tooru said. Tobio whined again. “You’re in heat, you can’t make that decision now. He can’t come in.”

“But I want him here,” Tobio complained. “Bring him back, Tooru. I want him here.”

“You want any alpha you can get, and he’s the closest one to you,” Tooru sighed. “You can’t consent to anything now. You’ll just have to ride out this week, and then you can talk to him.”

“But I want him now.”

“You’re not getting him now and that’s final,” Tooru said firmly. “But I will remind you of this the next time you’re feeling unsure as to whether you could mate him. He clearly cares about you, and I know you care about him.”

Tobio felt the heat gathering in his belly, and he was about to start touching himself again, no matter if Tooru was there to see it or not. Tooru could probably sense this, because he was backing out of the room.

“Remember to drink your water,” he said. “I’ll check on you again in a few hours. Hajime’s going to stand guard outside your door to make sure no one tries to take advantage of you.”

Tobio gave some faint noise of agreement before the door shut behind Tooru and he was plunging his fingers inside of him, mercilessly attacking the second entrance inside. He cried, barely able to still smell the scent of sun warmed grass that Tooru had brought in with him.

“Hinata,” he moaned into his pillow. “Shouyou.”

***

Shouyou fidgeted nervously. It wasn’t like he was doing something wrong. By all accounts he was doing something right, but he was so nervous that he’d been an hour early to training. Kageyama walked in, narrowing his eyes.

“It doesn’t count as beating me if you cheat, dumbass,” Kageyama scoffed.

“I’m not trying to beat you!” Shouyou snapped. “I…actually have something for you.”

Kageyama looked at him in interest. Shouyou held out the bracelet he’d been turning in his hands for the last hour. It was a simple silver band, set with the pretty blue glass he’d seen the first time he’d gone down to the workshops.

“What is this?” Kageyama asked. He sounded cautious, and Shouyou didn’t blame him.

“It’s…kind of like an engagement present,” Shouyou said slowly. “Usually we give a necklace or a ring, but this counts too. It doesn’t have to mean anything,” he hurried on as Kageyama opened his mouth. “It’ll just…protect you, I guess. If you wear this, it’ll claim you as my omega, and no one will try to bother you because you’re already claimed. We have pretty strict rules against touching claimed omegas.”

Kageyama carefully took the bracelet, sliding it on his left wrist.

“This doesn’t have to mean you’re agreeing to mate me,” Shouyou said, just to make sure he knew. “It’s just to keep other alphas away from you. It’ll keep you safe.”

“Thank you,” Kageyama said stiffly. “For this, and for bringing me food earlier.”

Shouyou had been running ice cream and cold water near constantly to Kageyama’s room the entire week of his heat. He’d stopped bringing the meat buns after Oikawa had told him it was too hot for Kageyama to eat them.

“It’s no problem,” he said, waving his hands. “I should take care of you, shouldn’t I? I’m your friend.”

Kageyama nodded, picking up his sword. All this talk of feelings was probably enough for him. Shouyou noted that he’d been right – the colored glass did match Kageyama’s eyes. It was pretty. Kageyama was pretty.

“Let’s go,” he said, just as Asahi walked in. “I’ll beat you again.”

“Like hell,” Shouyou responded. “I’ll beat you today for sure!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: Kageyama is homesick and Hinata takes him home.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata takes a homesick Kageyama back to Seijoh

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This week has been absolute hell for me and I'm so behind on NaNoWriMo but luckily a) I have nothing to do this weekend so I can write and b) it's Thanksgiving break soon so I can spend the entire time writing then too. I'll catch up. I'm determined not to fail.  
> Also, I messed up my timeline a little bit. Oikawa was only supposed to be _seven_ months pregnant last chapter, not eight. This has been fixed but just in case you missed it, I fixed the timeline

Tobio wasn’t entirely sure what to think anymore.

He could almost say he was…happy, here in Karasuno. He still felt trapped, but only sometimes, and he still missed home, but Karasuno wasn’t so bad.

Hinata wasn’t so bad.

Besides, it wasn’t like there was much they could do now, anyway. Tooru was eight months pregnant and absolutely huge. At this point, they’d have to wait until he had the baby, and even then there was the added problem of moving a baby almost one hundred miles north to Shiratorizawa. By the time Tooru was done being pregnant and he and the baby had had time to heal up enough to travel, it would be winter. They’d end up having to stay until the snow melted or risk not surviving the journey.

And by then they’d have been in Karasuno almost a full year.

Maybe Satori or his husband or both could figure out a plan before then to get them out, but it didn’t seem likely.

Tobio looked out his window over the gardens. Could he be happy here permanently? The weather wasn’t that different from Seijoh. They didn’t have all the same plants, but Tobio didn’t care much for plants. He’d miss the jasmine, he guessed. He loved when it bloomed in promise of spring. But he wasn’t that attached to it.

He didn’t want to feel like a prisoner, but surely if he was mated to Hinata they would relax that, wouldn’t they? They wouldn’t keep their crown prince’s mate locked up. Not that he was locked up; he was perfectly free to roam within the castle grounds, but surely if he was mated to Hinata they’d let him out beyond the walls. He’d like to go out and see things. He’d never liked being cooped up in Seijoh’s palace.

He worried about Tooru’s baby, his future niece or nephew. There was a fifty percent chance the child would be an omega, and they had all seen firsthand the dangers of being an omega in Karasuno. Still, maybe if he was mated to Hinata, they would let Tooru and Hajime take their baby up to Shiratorizawa.

Maybe he could ask for that. Maybe they’d listen.

He ran his fingers over the bracelet on his left wrist. It was small and unobtrusive enough that it didn’t bother him, light enough that his motions weren’t impaired, but it kept catching his eye. He couldn’t stop touching it.

Hinata had assured him that it didn’t have to mean anything, but did he mean that? Would Hinata even be interested in him as a potential mate? He’d probably agree to it out of duty if nothing else, but Tobio didn’t want to be mated to someone out of duty.

He wanted what Tooru and Hajime had, a love so strong that they’d mated at eighteen despite their father’s disapproval and brought the entire court around to their side. He wanted what Satori had found years ago, a love so strong he’d left the only home he’d ever known to follow his future mate.

He didn’t want to be a duty.

“Hey,” a voice interrupted his thoughts. Tobio turned around to see Hinata poking his head through the door to his room. “Can I talk to you?”

Tobio nodded, heart pounding. What did Hinata want?

“You keep staring out the windows,” Hinata said. “Are you…homesick?”

Tobio was a little surprised by the question.

“Of course I am,” he said. “Why?”

“Would you maybe want to go back to see your home?” Hinata asked. “It’ll be winter soon, so if we want to go before spring, we have to go now.”

“You would take me back to Seijoh?” Tobio asked.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because you look sad,” Hinata said. “And what harm would it do? Besides, you haven’t left this place in months. You’re always pacing. Maybe leaving for a while would make you happier.”

“I…yes. Yes, I want to go.”

“Great! I’ll tell mom and start making arrangements.” Hinata turned and ran from the room. Tobio had to sit for a minute just to process. He was going home?

“You’re going back to Seijoh?” Tooru asked in disbelief. “No fair. I want to go too!”

“Tooru,” Hajime sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, “you are disgustingly pregnant. You can’t even fit through doorways anymore.”

“Our washroom door is just small!”

“You couldn’t even get up on a horse if you tried!”

Before Tooru could take that determined look of his and go try and get on a horse while eight months pregnant out of sheer spite, Tobio decided to steer the conversation back to why he’d told them in the first place.

“Do either of you want me to bring anything back from the castle for you?” he asked.

“Dad’s journal,” Tooru said without hesitation. “He always said it would be mine when I became king but…well, he’s dead now anyway. So I guess it’s rightfully mine now.”

Tobio nodded, turning to Hajime.

“What about you?” he asked.

“Just ask to see where my family is,” Hajime replied. “I think my mom probably died in battle, but see if my dad and sister are still alive.”

Tobio nodded again. He could ask along the way what had become of the Iwaizumi family.

The only snag left was Suga.

“Absolutely not,” he said firmly. “You two are not going all the way to Seijoh by yourselves. It’s too dangerous.”

“It’s not even a week’s ride and it’s through our territory,” Hinata argued. “We’ll be back in two weeks, tops! Nothing will happen.”

“You don’t know that!” Suga said. “You’re the crown prince, you can’t just go off by yourself. Take a guard. Take Tanaka and Ennoshita, you like both of them. But you’re not going by yourselves.”

“They’ll just slow us down,” Hinata whined. “We want to ride fast, and Ennoshita’s not a fast rider, and Tanaka won’t go faster than him.”

“You have all the time in the world,” Suga said. “You don’t need to go at break neck pace.”

So, in the end, they were taking Tanaka and Ennoshita. Hinata was a little sullen, but he seemed happy enough to be out riding. True to Hinata’s word, Ennoshita chose to plod along at a medium pace, keeping them from going at a full tilt towards Seijoh, but Tobio privately thought that was better for the horses anyway.

They stopped for the night, and Tanaka and Ennoshita planned to handle the watch themselves, but Tobio refused to not help. He’d never let his men keep watch without helping himself. It wasn’t in his nature.

They made good time to Seijoh in spite of Hinata’s protests, taking only three days to get to the old border and another one to get to the castle itself. It was so much quieter than Tobio remembered it. The castle was always bustling with people who needed to do things. Nothing was ever still and quiet like it was now.

“This is where you grew up?” Hinata asked quietly. Tobio nodded, shaking himself out of his weird sad feeling, and pointed to the corner of the main courtyard.

“That’s where I learned how to wield a sword,” he said. “Hajime taught me at first, but the captain of the guard Matsukawa taught me too.”

“What’s in there?” Hinata pointed to the castle keep itself. “Can we go in?”

Tobio led the way in, Tanaka and Ennoshita following cautiously behind him. This was all new to his three companions, but to Tobio it already felt like coming home. He strode through the doors with all the confidence he’d always used, leading Hinata, Tanaka, and Ennoshita to the grand opening.

“It’s bigger than it looks on the outside,” Hinata whispered, looking around. His voice echoed in the dusty silence. The sun shone in through the dust motes flying through the air.

Tobio had never seen it look so forlorn.

“Come on,” he said, gesturing. His father’s journal would probably be in his study, and he wanted to get that for Tooru before he did anything else.

“Who’s that?” Hinata asked, pointing at a portrait. Tobio stopped, taking in the familiar soft brown hair and brown eyes.

“That’s Tooru’s mother,” Tobio said. “Her name was Hana.”

“She’s beautiful,” Hinata said.

“She should be,” Tobio told him. “She was lowborn, but beautiful enough that our father mated her anyway.”

“Oikawa looks just like her.”

“Don’t tell him that. He thinks enough of himself already.”

Hinata snorted, and they kept walking. The silence didn’t feel so oppressive anymore. Tobio didn’t notice that Hinata had stopped again until he stopped sensing Hinata beside him. He turned to see Hinata ten paces behind, staring at another portrait.

He remembered where they were.

He remembered who Hinata was looking at.

“This is…?” Hinata trailed off.

“My mother,” Tobio finished for him. “Misaki. He was highborn, a close cousin of the royal family. My father remarried about five years after Hana died in childbirth.”

“He looks like you,” Hinata mused, taking in the black hair and blue eyes.

“Tooru and I both take after our mothers,” Tobio explained. “We got our father’s face, though. For a while the kingdom was worried because two queens had died in childbirth. They wanted me to replace Tooru since Misaki was of royal blood and Hana wasn’t.”

“You didn’t want to take his place?” Hinata asked.

“No,” Tobio shook his head. “Tooru’s a better ruler than I’ll ever be. Besides, he always promised he’d let me stay unmated if I wanted.”

“Is that what you want?” Hinata asked quietly. Tobio stared at him for a long moment. He didn’t know what that face meant.

“I should get that journal Tooru wanted,” he said, hurrying away. He could feel his cheeks burning. Hinata followed close behind him.

His father’s study was hidden away at the back of the palace. There were secret exits that the king could have used to escape, had there been time. It was easy enough to find the journal, hidden in a desk drawer, locked with a key Tooru had managed to grab before being dragged out.

It was leather bound, and part of Tobio was curious as to what was in it, but it wasn’t for him. He was the second son, the one not born to rule, and he didn’t want anything to do with whatever was in that book.

“Come on, let’s…” he trailed off, looking over to where a secret exit was by the fireplace. He hadn’t looked over there much on his way in, too focused on the desk, but now that he was facing the door he could see the scuffed up dirt.

“What is it?” Hinata asked.

“Get back to Tanaka and Ennoshita. Now,” Tobio commanded, voice much sharper than it had been a second ago.

“What?”

“Someone’s been here. Recently. Get back to Tanaka and Ennoshita.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know who, dumbass! That’s why we need to _get back to Tanaka and Ennoshita_.”

He and Hinata sprinted into the hall, running back to the main entrance where they’d left Tanaka and Ennoshita to watch the door. Tobio was about to shout a warning when he saw them standing back to back, hands in the air, weapons on the ground.

People stood around them, faces covered with scarves. They must have surrounded the two soldiers and surprised them.

 _Guerilla tactics,_ Tobio thought. _Just like Karasuno used against me._

He didn’t have a weapon and wasn’t sure what to do in this situation. However, either he or Hinata must have made a noise, because a few of the masked people turned in their direction.

“That’s the prince of Karasuno,” a voice said. Tobio knew that voice. He just never thought he’d hear it again after the owner ran away from a battle. “Take him.”

Masked men stalked towards them, swords raised. Tobio did the first thing he thought of, which was to stand in front of Hinata.

“Kageyama-sama?” one of the men asked, the tallest one there, another voice he recognized.

“Don’t hurt him,” Tobio pleaded, grasping for the only straw that might save Hinata’s life. “He’s my mate.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: another God Damn Monster Chapter


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Like turns into love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is actually not a monster chapter. I thought this chapter and the next chapter were one chapter in my outline, but they are not, so they both get to be normal length. I'm going straight into the next one, so hopefully I'll have it up tonight too.

Shouyou froze.

“He’s…what?” one of the masked men asked. He unwrapped the scarf from around his face to reveal sleepy eyes and enough eyebrows for two men.

“He’s my mate,” Kageyama repeated.

“You…agreed to mate with Karasuno’s crown prince?” the man asked. “Did they force you?”

“I agreed because I wanted to,” Kageyama said. “So please don’t hurt him. Or the two guards with us. They were just here to protect us.”

“There’s no way you would agree to mate with anyone,” the tallest of the group argued. He pulled off his scarf to reveal hair that stuck straight up. “I know you better than that.”

“It’s true, Kindaichi,” Kageyama protested.

“He’s not lying,” the man closest to them said. “That bracelet he’s wearing? That’s a Karasuno engagement present. If he says they’re mates, I believe him.”

“This complicates things,” sighed the closest one to Kindaichi. “We’ll have to alter the plan.”

“What are you doing here, Kunimi?” Kageyama asked.

“We saw the horses outside the palace. Two nobles, two guards. We figured you’d be worth something in ransom,” Kunimi shrugged. “None of us expected them to let their prized captured prince out of the castle.”

“I’m not a prisoner.”

“You could’ve fooled me.”

“None of this is helping,” the man with the eyebrows interrupted. “Kunimi, what is the new plan?”

“I’m thinking, Matsukawa,” Kunimi sighed. “I’m sure the prince is still worth something in ransom. Maybe we could even negotiate a better deal for Seijoh with his life.”

“That’s the kind of thinking I like to hear,” Matsukawa said. “Let’s move out. Tie up those guards, Kindaichi, Kyoutani. I’ll get the prince.”

“No,” Kageyama stepped in front of Shouyou again. Matsukawa raised one eyebrow. “You don’t have to tie him up. I’ll keep an eye on him. He won’t wander off.”

“Are you sure you can control him?” Matsukawa asked. “If he runs and we have to chase him down, it won’t end well for either of you.”

“Hina…Shou,” Kageyama said, turning to him. “Do you promise not to run?”

His eyes were wide and bright. He had a plan, or at least an idea. _Trust me_ , those eyes begged.

Shouyou did.

“I promise.”

***

Tobio had breathed a sigh of relief when Hinata agreed to go along with his plan. The plan he was still trying to work out.

He really needed to talk to Hinata without anyone listening in.

Hinata plodded next to him, never straying more than a few feet from Tobio’s side. They’d left the horses behind. Since they’d be taking animal paths through the woods to get back to Karasuno rather than take the main road, the horses would be useless. Some members of the resistance movement were watching them.

It would take them around two weeks to get back to Karasuno at this rate, Tobio figured. Two weeks to keep up the lie of Hinata being his mate, two weeks to keep him alive.

Could he do that?

He really needed to talk to Hinata.

They stopped for the night in a clearing, distributing bedrolls and starting a fire for food. Tobio saw Tanaka and Ennoshita watching all the Seijoh people warily. He had to protect them, too. They didn’t deserve to die just because he’d wanted to go home.

He could practically feel the questions rolling off Hinata through dinner, but luckily it could be passed off as nervousness. He knew the minute they were out of earshot of everyone else, Hinata would be bursting at the seams.

He made it all the way to them lying down on their bedrolls facing each other.

“Why did you say I’m your mate?” Hinata asked, before Tobio had a chance to clap a hand over his mouth.

“Shh,” he hissed, leaning over Hinata. With any luck, this position with his face over Hinata’s neck would just look like they were scenting each other. “Not so loud. They might hear you.”

“What’s going on?” Hinata breathed, so quietly that even right by his face, Tobio could barely hear him.

“I didn’t want them to hurt you,” Tobio sighed. “It was the first thing I thought of.”

“You want to pretend to be mates so they won’t hurt me?” Hinata asked. Tobio nodded, the tip of his nose dragging along Hinata’s neck. “Why?”

“I don’t want to see you hurt,” Tobio said. “It’s just until we get back to Karasuno. Then we’ll sort everything out with your parents and it’ll go back to normal.”

He tried not to think about Suga’s face when he learned his firstborn son was captured by the resistance movement.

“Why did you call me Shou?”

“If we’re mates, it would be weird if I didn’t call you by your given name. You should call me Tobio.”

“Okay. Last question. Are you scenting me?”

Tobio paused where he’d started to nuzzle into Hinata’s neck.

“Mates are supposed to smell like each other,” he argued. “They’ll know something’s up if we don’t. We’re lucky you wore something that covers your neck.”

“Okay. Should I scent you back?”

Tobio nodded. Hinata shifted under him to nose into his neck. He shuddered. No one had ever done this for him before.

“Good?” Hinata asked, pulling back. Tobio wasn’t sure if he meant the scent was strong enough or if it felt good.

The answer to both was yes.

Tobio crowded closer to Hinata, squeezing his eyes shut. He wrapped his arms around the smaller alpha, tucking his head under Hinata’s chin. They both could use some rest. It was going to be a long two weeks.

***

Shouyou woke up to a face full of black hair. Kageyama…Tobio was just as close as he’d been last night, nose pressed into Shouyou’s collarbones.

So now they were pretending to be mates. He could smell Tobio on himself after the scenting last night. This was really happening.

Shouyou felt Tobio shifting as he stirred, sleepy blue eyes opening.

“Hey,” Shouyou whispered.

“Hi,” Tobio murmured back. “Are we good?”

“I don’t think anyone’s nearby, if that’s what you’re asking,” Shouyou replied. Experimentally, he pressed a kiss to Tobio’s forehead. The omega in his arms went stiff. “That’s something mates do. You’re going to have to pretend you like that if you want to pull this off.”

Tobio nodded, face buried in Shouyou’s chest, but Shouyou could see the red tips of his ears. He blushed too. Could they really make it through two weeks of this?

Tobio would probably kill him before the resistance movement did.

“Come on,” Shouyou said, sitting up. “The sooner we get moving, the sooner we can get back to Karasuno.”

Tobio stood up, helping to roll up their bedrolls. Shouyou tentatively slipped their hands together as they walked to greet the rest of the camp. Tobio jumped, but squeezed his hand back.

They could do this.

***

Tobio couldn’t do this. He was actually fretting over Shou, which was _not_ something he did. He didn’t fret.

Except he was fretting.

Kunimi had asked to talk to him alone, which meant he’d had to leave Shou with Tanaka and Ennoshita. That made Tobio nervous. Separated, it would be much easier to discover they weren’t a mated pair. At least together they could present a united front.

“Kunimi,” he said simply, looking at the beta.

“Kageyama,” Kunimi replied. Tobio couldn’t bring himself to care that Kunimi had dropped the honorific.

“If this is about what happened during the battle, I want you to know that I’m sorry,” Tobio said hurriedly. “I should have listened to you and Kindaichi from the start. You were right.”

Kunimi actually changed expressions, looking a little surprised.

“I never thought I’d hear you say that, but that’s not what this is about,” Kunimi said. He took a deep breath. “I know you aren’t really mated to the prince of Karasuno.”

“What?” Tobio gasped. “Of course I am!”

“Then show me your mating mark,” Kunimi snapped. Tobio instinctively covered the junction where his neck met his shoulder.

“I don’t have to prove anything to you,” he said, turning to leave. Kunimi grabbed his wrist.

“You don’t act like a mated pair,” Kunimi said. “That’s how I know. It’s only been a day, but you trip over your own first names, you miss each other’s hands when you reach for them, and every time he kisses you, you flinch away at first. You act like two people pretending to be mated.”

Tobio sighed, and pulled his collar to the side to reveal the smooth skin.

“Why does he matter enough to you to pretend like this?” Kunimi asked. “He’s not your mate.”

“He’s my friend,” Tobio replied. “I don’t want to see him hurt.”

“You wish he was your mate?”

“Maybe.”

“His people conquered ours,” Kunimi said. “And you still like him?”

“He’s been kind to me,” Tobio said, looking down. “So have his parents. They’ve been kind to Tooru and Hajime too. No one’s hurt us. And he’s been a good friend.”

“I won’t tell anyone,” Kunimi said. Tobio whipped his head up. “That you’re not mated. I won’t tell anyone. He’s worth more to us alive than dead, and if they think you’re mated, the others will stay away from him. But you’re going to have to pretend better if you want it to work.”

“Thank you,” Tobio said fervently. He went to find Shou. They were going to have to stay closer than ever.

***

Shouyou wasn’t entirely sure what to expect when Tobio came striding towards him with a determined look in his eyes, but it certainly wasn’t the punch in the lips of a kiss he got.

Tobio ducked his head back, seeming to realize that he’d done something wrong.

“How was…?” he trailed off.

“That was…” Shouyou started. “Awful, actually. Completely awful. Have you ever kissed anyone before?”

Tobio grumbled and turned red, looking at the ground.

“Hey, it’s alright,” Shouyou tried to soothe him. “I can just…come on, I don’t want to do this in front of everyone.”

They’d already stopped for the night, so Shouyou led him behind a nearby tree. They were still within grabbing distance in case either of them tried to run, but at least they were out of sight.

“So, first of all,” Shouyou started. “A kiss isn’t a fight.”

“I know that!” Tobio snapped.

“Then don’t be so aggressive,” Shouyou said. “Don’t try to punch me in the face…with your face. That’s not how this works.”

“Fine. What do I do?”

“Hold still.”

Shouyou stood up on his toes so he could reach Tobio’s face. He pressed his lips gently to Tobio’s holding for only a moment before he pulled back.

“See?” he asked. “Just be gentle. I’m not going to hurt you.”

“That’s all I do?” Tobio asked. Shouyou nodded.

“Want to try?”

Tobio leaned in close, pressing his lips to Shouyou’s hesitantly. Shouyou let him, but after a moment tried to move his lips. He felt Tobio jump, but the omega didn’t pull away, and after another beat he started to reciprocate.

He was clumsy, uncoordinated for once in his life. Shouyou wanted to grin, but he was too busy trying to mold Tobio’s lips into a kiss. He felt a line of drool run down his chin. It didn’t matter. They were doing fine.

He finally pulled back to see Tobio’s face flushed and eyes hooded, pupils blown wide. He hadn’t thought the omega had it in him to be alluring and sexy.

He was wrong.

He _wanted_ Tobio.

“What brought this on?” he asked, trying to distract himself from the urge that almost certainly wouldn’t be received well.

“Kunimi knows we’re not mated,” Tobio said. “It’s okay, he won’t tell anyone. He wants you alive, and thinking we’re mated will protect you from the others. But apparently we’re not pretending very well.”

“That’s why you kissed me?” Shouyou tried not to be disappointed. He’d known what he was getting into last night.

“That and…other stuff.” Tobio dropped his head to Shouyou’s shoulder, nuzzling into his scent gland.

“You mean…?”

“Shut up. Dumbass.”

Shouyou ran his fingers through Tobio’s hair. It was softer than it looked.

***

Tobio was grateful for the chance to bathe when they passed a river. He was starting to feel grimy, and he liked to feel clean. Shou had come with him, but they’d faced steadily away from each other the entire time.

It was kind of a surprise to see how much muscle Shou had, but then, they’d been training every day back at Karasuno. He’d probably been in a lot of pain as his muscles were pushed to the limit every single day, but he’d still gotten up every day to try and beat Tobio again.

Tobio had to admire his strength. A lot of people would’ve quit. He doubted the thought had ever crossed Shou’s mind.

Still, looking at Shou made him think of the kiss, made him think of wanting things he didn’t even have names for. He didn’t know what to do with them. It was easier to just ignore them. Maybe they would go away.

He couldn’t help glancing over his shoulder, though, watching the water drip out of Shou’s hair and slide over his shoulders. They were nice shoulders, broader than they looked under the loose Karasuno clothes, leading into a back with firm muscles lining his spine, down to…

Tobio splashed out of the water. He tried to tell himself the heat he felt in his cheeks was just from coming out of the cooler water into the warm air of fading summer.

“I’ll meet you back there,” he called over his shoulder, not looking this time. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to tear his gaze away a second time.

He barely heard Shou’s call of acknowledgement, instead heading straight for his clothes. He pulled them on hurriedly, wanting to cover himself up. His pants were easy enough, but his shirt got caught on his still damp skin. His arms were trapped over his head before he yanked the shirt down, collar coming down past where it normally did.

He saw Matsukawa coming towards him, most likely to tell them both to go back to the others. His eyes focused on Tobio’s neck, and Tobio realized his shirt wasn’t covering a lack of a mating mark anymore.

He slapped a hand over his neck, pulling up his shirt, but by the way Matsukawa’s eyes narrowed, it was too late. He’d been the one who’d trained Tobio to fight, who had spent the most time with him as a child. He knew Tobio well enough to know what he was hiding now.

Tobio gulped. If Matsukawa knew, it wouldn’t be long before his mate Hanamaki knew as well, and then everyone with them would know, and their whole ruse would be worthless.

Desperate times called for desperate measures.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: the rating of this fic goes up


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Deed is Done

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time for an unrepentant smut chapter because it's my story and I can write unrepentant smut if I want. I'm Not Sorry. If this is not your cup of tea, skip to the bottom notes for a summary.

“I want you to mate me.”

Tobio could admit that there was probably a better way he could’ve phrased that, and going off Shou’s expression, he’d probably agree.

“You want me to…I’m sorry, what?”

“I want you to mate me.” Now that it was out there, it was probably best to stick to his guns.

“Where is this coming from?” Shou asked.

“Matsukawa saw my shoulder,” Tobio said in way of explanation. “Everyone will know we’re not mated soon. We still have another week and a half until we get back to Karasuno.”

“That’s not a good reason to want to mate with someone,” Shou protested. “It’s a permanent decision; you can’t mate with someone for life because you’re scared or because you feel like you have to.”

“It’s not just that…I…I want you,” Tobio finished in a whisper. “Isn’t this what you want? Isn’t that why you were getting closer to me at Karasuno? Or was that just because you were doing your duty? Do you…do you want me at all?”

“That’s not the point!” Shou shouted. Tobio waved his hands to get him to keep it down, but Shou was on a roll now. “No, don’t you shush me! You think I like hearing that the man I love only wants me because he’s scared for me? Well, I don’t! I don’t want you out of duty, and I wasn’t trying to get close to you because I had to. You’re my best friend and I don’t want you to end up regretting mating with me because you’re scared for me! I don’t want you to end up feeling trapped.”

He gulped in deep breaths while Tobio stared at him. Was that how Shou really felt?

“I don’t…just want you because I’m scared,” Tobio stuttered. “I want you because you’re you.”

“But that doesn’t mean…”

“I’ve never felt trapped with you,” Tobio interrupted. “You know I’ve never run through the gardens screaming back at Seijoh? My father would have scolded me, and besides, I never had anyone to do it with. No one would’ve dared to do it. No one would’ve dared to challenge the second prince of Seijoh to a duel, but you were threatening me with a sword almost as soon as you saw me. No one’s ever acted like you do with me, and you’re infuriating, and I used to think I hated you, but that’s not it at all.”

He paused to suck in breath, taking in Shou’s wide brown eyes.

“I’ve never cared about anyone the way I care about you,” he admitted. “And yeah, I don’t want to see you get hurt, but more than that, I don’t ever want to let you go. So I want you to claim me, and I want to claim you. I’ll end up choosing you anyway, whether I wait a month or a year or ten. I want to stand at the top of the world with you, and that won’t change, whether I’m scared or not. So let me make sure you’ll survive long enough for us to stand at the top of the world together. Please.”

“Is that how you really feel?” Shou asked in a whisper. “You care about me that much?”

“I love you,” Tobio said. “At least, I think I do. I wasn’t even sure what love was three months ago. I’m still not sure, but if it’s not what I feel with you, I don’t think I want anything to do with it.”

“Idiot,” Shou said, swiping at his eyes. “How can you just say stuff like that?”

“It’s the truth.”

Shou sighed. Tobio held his breath.

“Yeah, alright, I’ll mate you,” Shou conceded, a grin starting to spread across his face. “But we’re going to find a way to buy ourselves some time alone.”

“Why?”

“You’re a virgin, right?”

Tobio nodded.

“I want to make sure your first time isn’t some rushed job in the middle of the forest,” Shou said. “You deserve better than that.”

“You’ve…slept with people before?”

“Yes. We have heat and rut partners,” Shou said. “Does that bother you?”

Tobio shook his head. It did bother him, just a little, but more because Shou would know what he was doing and he wouldn’t.

“Don’t worry about them,” Shou said. “I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want you.”

“Dumbass! Now you’re the one saying embarrassing things.” Tobio put his hands over his burning cheeks.

“Hey,” Shou said softly, pulling one hand away from his face. “It’s going to be fine. I’ll take care of you.”

“I think we can get Kunimi to cover for us,” Tobio said. “He already knows about our situation, and he’s smart enough to distract the camp for long enough.”

Kunimi wasn’t hard to find. He was at the center of everything, and luckily, for once Kindaichi wasn’t at his side.

“I need a favor,” Tobio said without preamble. Kunimi wasn’t one to put up with bullshit. “A big one.”

Kunimi gestured for him to go on.

“I need time alone with Shou, and I need you to keep everyone else distracted so they don’t come after us,” Tobio said. Kunimi opened his mouth.

“We’re not running,” Shou interjected before Kunimi could voice his concerns. “We just…need to rectify the mate situation.”

Kunimi’s eyes widened.

“Please,” Tobio said. “I know I haven’t done anything to deserve a favor, but when we get to Karasuno, I promise I’ll do anything I can to make it up to you.”

“I think I’ll save you owing me a favor, actually,” Kunimi said faintly. “A favor from the future queen of Karasuno could carry a lot of weight. How much time do you need?”

“An hour,” Shou said. Kunimi didn’t look amused.

“That’s it?”

“I’ll take two if you can get me two, but an hour’s all I need to make sure it’s done properly.”

“Fine,” Kunimi waved his hand. “I can definitely buy you an hour, and maybe more, but don’t push your luck. Do what you need to do. And Hinata,” he leaned in close, “take care of him. He’s a gods damned idiot and he won’t take care of himself.”

Kunimi turned away from them.

“I didn’t think he actually cared about me,” Tobio mused.

“That was caring?”

“For Kunimi that’s caring.”

Shou snorted.

“This is bizarre. My life’s bizarre. You’re bizarre.”

“Hey!”

“You’re incredible,” Shou said softly, taking his hand and standing on his toes to give Tobio a kiss on the cheek. “Come on. Kunimi only promised us an hour and I need the whole time.”

He pulled Tobio by the hand, grabbing a spare bedroll on his way. They walked into the forest, carefully checking over their shoulders that they weren’t being followed, going until they couldn’t hear anyone’s voices anymore.

“This looks good,” Shou said, stopping in a meadow. The daylight was fading as the sun went down, sending red and orange highlights across Shou’s face.

He was beautiful.

He spread out the bedroll, sitting down and patting the space beside him. Tobio took a deep breath before he joined him. He wanted this. He was scared, but he wanted this. That wasn’t going to change.

“We can still stop if you’re not ready,” Shou assured him, almost as if he’d read Tobio’s mind. “If you decide in the middle of it that you don’t want this anymore, we can stop then too.”

“I want this,” Tobio assured him. “I want you.”

Shou kissed him then. It wasn’t like the first time – which had hurt – or the time after that – which had been nice, but clumsy. This time was sweet, and as Shou swiped his tongue across Tobio’s bottom lip, he let the alpha take the lead.

He trusted Shou, as Shou had trusted him when this whole thing had started.

Shou pushed him back so he was lying down on the bedroll before scooting forward to sit between his legs. He stroked his hand over Tobio’s cheek before leaning in to kiss him again.

“Relax,” he said. “I’ll take care of you.”

Part of Tobio wanted to be offended at the very omegan part that shivered at hearing that.

Shou kissed down his neck, pausing to lick at his scent glands. Tobio shivered and whined. Shou slid his right leg forward, pressing his thigh against Tobio’s crotch. The pressure felt good, and Tobio bucked his hips up, grinding into Shou’s leg.

“Eager,” Shou laughed, undoing the buttons on Tobio’s shirt and pulling it off him.

“You…you too,” Tobio protested, lifting the bottom of Shou’s shirt. Shou gave him a smile, pulling the shirt over his head. Tobio was once again struck by how much muscle he had. Then again, he was an alpha. It made sense he would build muscle faster than Tobio ever could.

He kissed over Tobio’s chest, licking at his right nipple. Tobio gasped, hips shifting harder against Shou’s leg. Shou bit gently on the nipple, and Tobio felt that jolt go straight down his spine. He swore he felt Shou smiling against his chest, and a moment later Shou’s free hand came up to play with his left nipple.

He squirmed. As good as the friction against his dick felt, he felt an emptiness inside him that he wanted filled even more. His instincts were starting to take over, driving him to grind up into Shou and claw at his arms, whining.

“Be patient, yeah?” Shou told him. “It’ll feel better if you wait for it.”

Tobio didn’t want to wait.

He reached down, palming at Shou’s ass. It was just as firm as it had looked back at the river. He pulled Shou forward so they were truly grinding against each other. Shou let out a pleased huff of breath.

“You sure you’re a virgin?” he asked through a shaky laugh. Tobio nodded, though he knew it wasn’t a real question.

Shou moved down, finally, to the ties keeping Tobio’s pants together. He undid them, kissing Tobio’s stomach as he pulled the pants down and off. Tobio was completely naked, completely exposed, and that was terrifying, but he didn’t want to stop.

Shou kissed him once at the top of his thigh, before leaning forward to lick around his entrance. Tobio let out a strangled cry at that. He hadn’t been expecting it, but it felt so much better than the grinding they’d been doing just a few minutes ago.

“You’re already so wet,” Shou hummed, the vibrations sending shivers up and down Tobio’s spine. “I didn’t know omegas could get this wet out of heat.”

Tobio whimpered, feeling Shou’s tongue lapping at him before diving all the way in. He canted his hips up, desperately trying to get Shou’s tongue in even deeper.

“You really are impatient, aren’t you,” Shou said, pulling back to insert his fingers. Tobio keened, grinding his hips down onto Shou’s hand. That felt so much better than his tongue.

Shou leaned down again to suck Tobio’s dick into his mouth, and Tobio thought he’d lose everything right then and there. He was so overwhelmed by the sensations that he didn’t even notice how loud he was starting to moan.

Shou traced the rim of his second, inner entrance, and Tobio choked.

“Shou…now…I’m gonna…” he panted. Shou obliged and withdrew his fingers, pulling his pants down. He lined himself up, and Tobio shook at the feeling of him against his entrance.

“We can still stop, if you want,” Shou said. “I probably won’t be able to stop once we get started.”

“Please.” Tobio canted his hips up into Shou. When he felt Shou’s dick catching on his entrance, he whined again.

“If I hurt you, punch me or something,” Shou instructed. And with that, he slowly shoved in.

Tobio had never felt so full before. Even his own fingers during his heats didn’t feel this good. He whimpered, trying to grind himself farther down onto Shou’s dick. He wasn’t going to break. He wanted all of his alpha.

“Slow down,” Shou gasped. “We still have time.”

“Want you,” Tobio whined. “Please.”

Shou was seated all the way in him, thighs pressing against Tobio’s ass, taking deep breaths against his chest.

“You can move.”

Shou’s hips jolted forward, and Tobio ground up to meet him. They matched rhythms, just as they’d started to do in training, just as they’d started to do in life. Tobio had never felt so close, so connected with another person before, and he never wanted it to stop.

He was close already, though, product of his inexperience. He could feel the tension snapping tighter in his stomach.

“I’m…close…please,” he gasped. He could feel Shou’s knot growing and hitting against his entrance. “Knot me…please…”

With a guttural moan, Shou shoved his knot into Tobio. Tobio bit down on the juncture between his shoulder and neck, where his bonding gland should have been ready to be bitten. Shou cried out, biting Tobio’s neck in return.

It hurt, but Tobio could feel the mating bond flow between them, He could feel Shou’s heartbeat alongside his own. He could feel everything.

Shou released his neck, instead resting against his chest. They both let their breathing slow, clinging to each other.

“How much time do you think we have?” Shou asked quietly.

“I think another fifteen minutes, maybe?” Tobio replied.

“Good. Give me five before the knot goes down.”

They lay there in silence, the only sounds to disturb them the rustling of the leaves in the evening breeze. Tobio felt content. Maybe he would go back to fear when they returned to the resistance fighters, but for now, he felt content.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Hinata and Kageyama mate
> 
> Next time: another unrepentant smut chapter because I am still Not Sorry


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another Sin chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is 3k of pure smut. Enjoy sinners, because it should be the last sin of this fic. If this is not your cup of tea, summary will be in the bottom notes.

****

Shouyou was happy. It was almost like he was riding some kind of high ever since he’d knotted Tobio two days ago. There was a pleasant hum in the back of his mind, the mating bond letting him know Tobio was there. It was nice.

He never thought everything would work out so well for them.

He was pretty sure all the resistance fighters knew they hadn’t been mated before now, but since they actually had each other’s mating marks now, there wasn’t really much anyone could do about it.

Tobio was…softer now. That wasn’t exactly the word Shouyou would use to describe him, but he couldn’t really put his finger on what had changed. They were practically attached at the hip, but they’d been hanging closer to each other since they’d been picked up by the resistance fighters. It wasn’t really something obvious, but Shouyou could feel the difference.

They still fought, though. Shouyou was kind of glad Tobio wasn’t letting him win now that they were mated. That would’ve been boring. He fell in love with the omega who challenged him, not one who submitted to him.

Part of hanging closer together meant that Shouyou was getting more attuned to tiny changes in Tobio. Specifically, his scent had changed over the past two days. It was different, not what would be expected of a mated pair, yet strangely familiar…

Shouyou’s heart skipped a beat when he remembered where he’d smelled it before, but that was _impossible_.

“Tobio, are you…are you going into heat?” he asked carefully. Tobio’s face twisted into that expression he used when he thought Shouyou was being a dumbass, but then he froze.

“I…” he trailed off, poking at his stomach.

“It hasn’t even been two months since the last one!” Shouyou protested. “How are you already going into heat again?”

“I don’t know,” Tobio whispered. “This has never happened before. They’ve always been exactly three months apart.”

“Do you think it’s because we mated?” Shouyou asked. “That can change your hormones, and usually couples mate during heats.”

“I don’t know why but this is definitely happening,” Tobio said. “What are we going to do?”

“We still have a week until we get back to Karasuno, right?” Shouyou asked. Tobio nodded. “Do you think you can hold out until then?”

This time Shouyou really did get the “dumbass” face.

“Right, sorry. Stupid question,” Shouyou agreed. “But I don’t know what to do. The middle of a forest isn’t the best place to be having a heat.”

“I know that,” Tobio snapped. “That doesn’t help me.”

“Yelling at me doesn’t help,” Shouyou said. He was trying to stay calm. He could practically feel Tobio panicking, both through their bond and from the distress in his scent. “We’ll figure something out. Maybe we should talk to Kunimi.”

Tobio couldn’t offer a better suggestion, so they went to track down Kunimi.

“I’m about to go into heat,” he said simply. Shouyou groaned internally. Tobio really needed to work on leading into conversations.

“What do you want me to do about it?” Kunimi asked, although form the way he started tapping his fingers, Shouyou could tell he was worried about this new development.

“I’m not going to be able to move for about five days,” Tobio admitted. Shouyou could practically feel the frustration rolling off him. “And I’d prefer as much privacy as I can get.”

“That…might not be easy,” Kunimi said slowly. “We only have two alphas, and one of them is one of your guards, but still, it’s going to be hard on them to be around an omega in heat.”

“Tanaka is mated to Ennoshita,” Shouyou told him. “Won’t that help?”

“Actually, that’s good, yeah,” Kunimi sighed. “So we just have to worry about Kyoutani, but I think Yahaba can keep him in check. Maybe I’ll send the four of them to Karasuno with a message. I don’t want your guards killing us on the spot before we have the chance to talk.”

“What do you want?” Shouyou asked. “What good is ransoming me going to do?”

“I want my home back,” Kunimi said, voice like steel. “I’m willing to negotiate with the king and queen, but I want my home back. If it means I have to make them hate me by kidnapping their only son, that’s what I’m going to do.”

“I’m sorry,” Shouyou said quietly. He hadn’t really thought about the human cost of the war, even after hearing Tobio’s story.

“Don’t apologize for something you didn’t do,” Kunimi waved him off. “I think we have a tarp in someone’s pack. We can make a passable tent. It’s not ideal, but it’s the best I can do.”

“Thank you,” Tobio said.

“How long do you think you’ll have before you go into heat?” Kunimi asked.

“Maybe…a day?” Tobio said, wiggling as he assessed himself. “Not long enough that we could get back to Karasuno before I’d go into heat.”

“Fine,” Kunimi sighed. “We’ll get as close to Karasuno as we can before you go into heat. Hold off on it as long as you can. I’ll make sure Makki is guarding you. He’s an omega too, so he shouldn’t be too affected by you. I guess I’ll just have to keep Yahaba and Kyoutani together and away from you since Kyoutani’s the only unmated alpha we have.”

Shouyou nodded. It wasn’t the perfect plan, but it was the best they could do with what they had. They packed up camp, setting off on foot at a brisk pace. Tanaka and Ennoshita kept drifting closer to them despite their captors trying to keep them apart. They could probably sense the tension. They could maybe even smell the beginnings of an omega going into heat.

They pushed on all day, even well into nightfall until it was too dark to keep going. They stopped, and Shouyou could already tell they wouldn’t be going on in the morning. Tobio had been fidgeting more and more, shifting his hips as he walked and swiping a hand across his forehead to collect the sweat gathering there. His jasmine scent was getting sweeter, more enticing, and Shouyou was resisting the urge to growl at anyone getting close to them.

Makki was alright. He hadn’t said much to them, and as an omega, he didn’t feel instinctively threatening to Shouyou. Much more worrying was the unmated alpha Kyoutani at the front of the line. More than anyone else here, he smelled dangerous to Shouyou, like a bolt of lightning in their midst. He looked wild in the way the others didn’t.

Still, he seemed fairly checked by the omega Yahaba by his side, and he hadn’t once turned to look at Tobio. With any luck, he’d be going with Yahaba, Tanaka, and Ennoshita to Karasuno at daybreak with the message that Shouyou and Tobio were alive and unharmed. They had both signed the message Kunimi had written to prove that they were alive. Shouyou hoped his mother wouldn’t punish Tanaka and Ennoshita too much. It hadn’t been their fault. They were outnumbered.

Tobio was able to help them set up the tarp as a tent with an extra bedroll the only available nest. Shouyou supposed they’d have to make do, because Tobio was starting to slide faster into heat. Shouyou could smell it.

Eventually, Tobio couldn’t even stand upright anymore, hunching over and resisting the urge to submit himself to an alpha. He’d only go for Shouyou now that they were mated, but Shouyou preferred to keep this as private as possible. He was about to follow Tobio into the makeshift tent when Kunimi stopped him.

“What do you need to take care of him?” he asked.

“Mostly just water,” Shouyou replied. “He’s too hot to eat anything during his heats, so keeping him hydrated is really all I can do.”

“You’ve taken care of him in heat before?” Kunimi asked.

“Sort of,” Shouyou admitted. “I just brought him food. His brother took care of him. Oikawa wouldn’t let anyone else near him.”

“You brought him food? This was before you were mated, right?”

Shouyou nodded. Kunimi turned away, looking thoughtful.

“I’ll make sure you have plenty of water to give him,” he said. “Take care of him.”

Shouyou crawled into the tent with Tobio. It became clear quickly that heat had hit Tobio full force. He smelled nearly irresistible, and Shouyou had to fight to keep his head.

So this was the first wave of heat. Shouyou had been Hitoka’s heat partner before, he knew how to care for an omega in the throes of heat. Tobio would go through waves of being insatiable and sleepy, for about five days according to him.

He could do this.

Tobio was on him the moment he entered the tent. There wasn’t going to be any slowness or tenderness this time. An omega in heat was desperate to be knotted, and Tobio would be no different.

“Shou…Shou…please,” he whined, nuzzling his way into the crook of Shouyou’s neck. “Need you…”

Shouyou took a deep breath, which was maybe a bad idea, as he was assaulted with Tobio’s scent. He’d never smelled anything so tempting.

He let Tobio sit in his lap, grinding and whining, as he pulled Tobio’s shirt off. He could feel the heat radiating off Tobio’s skin, sweat already forming. He was reminded that Tobio had never had a heat partner before. No one had ever shared this with him. He shuddered, sliding his fingers down Tobio’s sweat-slicked spine and feeling the omega arch against him.

He made quick work of Tobio’s pants, giving no preamble to slipping his fingers in Tobio’s entrance. It was already loose and completely soaked, offering no resistance as Shouyou thrust his fingers in and out. The angle wasn’t the best, but Shouyou could just reach Tobio’s second, inner entrance, knowing that was where he really wanted the friction.

Tobio keened into Shouyou’s shoulder, grinding down furiously and babbling. Shouyou kept up relentless pressure on that inner entrance, driving Tobio to what promised to be the first of many orgasms.

He pulled his fingers out, but Tobio was already whining and begging again. It made sense. In this peak of a wave in heat, only a knot would soothe an omega. Shouyou pushed Tobio onto his back, pulling off his own shirt and pushing down his pants. Within seconds, he was pushing into Tobio, knowing this wouldn’t last long.

Tobio was too intoxicating.

He locked his ankles behind Shouyou’s back, using the leverage to meet his thrusts head on. Shouyou moaned, thrusting in deeper, feeling himself catch on Tobio’s inner entrance. He could feel his knot forming. With a deeper groan, he shoved the knot into Tobio, feeling the omega shake under him as he released with the knot inside of him.

Shouyou shook, coming apart with Tobio. If he’d thought their first time was good, this was incredible. Tobio gasped in deep breaths, hips slowing and falling still.

“You good?” Shouyou asked through his gasps for air. Tobio nodded, wrapping his arms around Shouyou’s neck. Shouyou rolled to the side so they were facing each other. He couldn’t pull out yet, but Tobio was too hot for close cuddling. “How long is it usually before you’ll have to go again?”

“Maybe an hour? Not long,” Tobio replied. Shouyou almost felt his dick jump in interest at the prospect of going again so soon, but he had to remind himself to take it slow. This was a marathon, not a sprint, and he had to be able to keep this up for the next five days.

“You should have water while you’re in a lull,” Shouyou suggested, knot finally deflated enough for him to slide out. “You have to stay hydrated.”

Tobio nodded, humming. Shouyou slid his pants on to leave the tent in search of water. To his surprise, someone had left a water skin outside the tent. It was probably Kunimi’s doing, but he had most likely directed one of the omegas to leave it. Not even betas were immune to the scent of an omega in heat.

Shouyou hoped the pheromones didn’t set off the other omegas. He’d heard of that happening before.

He brought the water skin back into the tent, letting Tobio gulp from it and using some to wipe down his face and torso. Heat sickness was a very real threat, especially because Tobio got so hot he couldn’t stand to eat. The best Shouyou could do was keep him cool and hope for the best.

As soon as Shouyou was done cleaning away his sweat, Tobio started grabbing for him again. It hadn’t even been an hour yet.

Shouyou took a deep breath. This was going to be a long five days.

***

Shouyou came in from hunting down water. He’d been nervous about leaving his omega in heat for even long enough to run to the river and back, but he was desperately trying to keep Tobio cool and that required a lot of water.

He almost dropped the water at the sight waiting for him in the tent. Tobio was up on his knees, face pressed into the bedroll, fingers pistoning in and out of himself. He twisted, hazy blue eyes meeting Shouyou’s, and he whined wordlessly.

Shouyou got the message.

He pulled Tobio’s fingers out of him, replacing them with his own. He kissed down Tobio’s spine, sucking marks that would hide beneath the collar of his shirt. They bloomed red and angry, claiming Tobio as his again and again.

He shoved his fingers into Tobio, much rougher than he’d been before, but Tobio keened and writhed harder, thrusting back onto his hand. Shouyou stared down his elegantly arched, muscular back, admiring the shifting of his muscles under his skin. He could appreciate why so many alphas liked their omegas to submit to them this way. It was a heady kind of power to hold over Tobio, to see him completely open and trusting like this.

He was so gorgeous. Shouyou couldn’t believe this omega was all his, forever. Tobio’s clenching around his fingers was so good, but he knew what Tobio really wanted. He stripped naked, thrusting into Tobio and listening to the omega cry out. He grabbed Tobio’s hips to brace himself, thrusting hard and hearing the sounds of skin slapping against skin.

The feeling brought out his knot, and within minutes he was shoving his knot into Tobio, hearing the moans beneath him as it brought Tobio some relief. He turned them so they were on their sides, spooning. He nuzzled into the back of Tobio’s neck and sighed contentedly. Tobio smelled calmer now, though he’d quickly learned just how insatiable Tobio was during heat.

They were only three days in, and already Shouyou was starting to feel the limits of his stamina. He knew he could hold out for another two days, but he’d need to sleep for a week when they got back to Karasuno. It shouldn’t have surprised him that Tobio was practically unstoppable. Neither of them had ever had any care for stamina limits before.

Shouyou reached for the water he’d brought back with him. He passed it around to Tobio, who gulped it fervently. His heart rate was starting to slow back down as he moved out of another peak.

Two more days. So far it had all gone without a hitch. Tanaka, Ennoshita, Kyoutani, and Yahaba had all left to deliver the message of their safety to Karasuno. Nobody had threatened Tobio so far.

They could do this.

***

Shouyou couldn’t do this. He was going to die because Tobio was going to kill him. He’d once again had to leave Tobio during a lull to get more water, and once again come back to find Tobio already approaching another peak.

This time, however, when he came back, Tobio had shoved him to the ground and crawled on top of him, writhing on his lap. Shouyou hadn’t even been able to say anything before Tobio was pulling his pants down.

While Shouyou hadn’t intentionally been trying to dominate Tobio, he’d been in control for the last four days, mostly because Tobio seemed happy with whatever Shouyou was willing to give him. Now, though, with his stamina flagging, Tobio seemed to sense the need to take matters into his own hands.

It was really hot.

Tobio lifted up with his strong thighs, position Shouyou’s already hardening dick at his entrance. Shouyou moaned as Tobio lowered himself down in one go, huffing out a breath as he bottomed out.

He started riding Shouyou in earnest, head lolling back as his moans lined up with his thrusts. He braced his hands behind him on Shouyou’s thighs for balance, using the position to drive himself down onto Shouyou’s dick.

Shouyou couldn’t let Tobio do all the work, even if he _was_ getting tired, so he held Tobio’s hips with both hands and thrust up into Tobio’s unrelenting pace. Tobio whined, his scent betraying how pleased he was. He was in complete control, and Shouyou could tell how happy that made him.

If this was what happened when Tobio took control, Shouyou was more than happy to let him do it more.

Tobio reached down to touch himself, and that was even better. He was beautiful, hands trailing all over himself, reaching to stroke himself as he thrusted down even faster, chasing his orgasm. How he still had stamina after the past four days was a mystery to Shouyou, but he was happy to chase the orgasm with him.

Tobio seized up, hand stroking faster before stopping entirely as he climaxed, mess spreading across Shouyou’s chest. He dropped forward, letting his head rest on Shouyou’s forehead, catching his breath.

“You really are incredible,” Shouyou told him. Tobio huffed a laugh, arms giving out as he rested on Shouyou’s chest. He was heavy, but Shouyou couldn’t bring himself to mind.

One more day

***

Shouyou woke up on the morning of the sixth day to see Tobio buried in his chest. The frantic scent of heat was gone, leaving a heaviness in its wake. Shouyou shook him awake.

Tobio whined, burrowing deeper into Shouyou’s chest.

“We have to get up if we want to get back to Karasuno,” Shouyou said. Omegas usually needed a few more days after their heat to truly recover, but they needed to get going as quickly as possible, before his mother got even more worried.

It seemed almost cruel to drag Tobio out of the makeshift nest he’d made for himself, but it had to be done. They cleaned up as well as they could with what water they had remaining, and went out to face the resistance fighters.

It was time to finish their journey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: everyone has to talk


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Negotiations are made, and all hell breaks loose

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it! I finally got some time away from the festivities to write (I've been writing snippets all day between cooking all the things) and I seem to be on a roll so I hope I can get the next chapter up soon.

Tobio wanted nothing more than to sleep for a few days. Heats always exhausted him, and this was the first he’d actually spent with someone else. He was even more tired than he normally was, both because of Shou and because he hadn’t had a full three months to recover from the last one.

So trudging through the forest with a group of resistance fighters wasn’t really his idea of a good time right now. He hoped when they got back to Karasuno they would just let him sleep. Maybe Suga would fuss over him for a while, but he hoped it wouldn’t take too long.

Shou was probably nearly as tired as he was, but he hadn’t complained yet. Sometimes Tobio wondered if his stamina even had a limit. He’d been good about sticking close to Tobio’s side for the last few days it was taking them to get to Karasuno, but Tobio could tell he was starting to get tired too.

They had to get back before one or both of them collapsed.

The walls of Karasuno were a blessing to see, and the shouts of the gatemen were promises that he could sleep soon. Suga was the first thing he saw when he looked into the courtyard, bouncing on his feet, looking anxious.

The resistance fighters and the Karasuno guards stared each other down. Tobio saw Tanaka and Ennoshita beside the king and Suga, swords drawn and at the ready.

“What do you want?” Suga asked without preamble. “Why have you taken my son and his guest?”

“We want to negotiate with you,” Kunimi said. “We want Seijoh back as ransom for your son.”

“You really think that will work?” Suga snapped.

“Koushi,” the king cautioned, hand on Suga’s arm. “Let’s just talk about this. Shouyou’s right there, he’s fine.”

“Fine. Inside, all of you,” Suga sighed heavily, leading the way in. Tobio felt bad for him, seeing how upset he looked and remembering that losing three babies had made him protective of his living children.

They gathered in the throne room, but Suga hesitated in taking his place with his mate.

“May I check to see that my son is unharmed?” he asked, leaning towards Shou. Kunimi nodded, and Suga was running across the room in a heartbeat. He swept Shou up in his arms, hugging him close, before pulling back to look him over. His eyes jumped quickly all over, looking for injuries, before they focused in on the mating mark peeking out from under his collar.

His eyes flicked over to Tobio, looking at his neck. Tobio tilted his head just a bit, just enough to let Suga see. He would find out soon enough anyway.

Suga’s eyes widened, and he strode over to Tobio. Before Tobio knew what was happening, he was surrounded in an embrace. He was too shocked to respond, but he didn’t want to push the other omega away. If anything, he wanted to overcome his shock and return the hug, but Suga was already letting go, looking him in the eyes for one moment before going to sit beside the king.

“Let’s start negotiations,” the king said, reaching out to give Suga’s hand a reassuring squeeze. “What is it exactly that you want?”

“We want our home back,” Kunimi said. He seemed to be the spokesperson for the resistance fighters. That didn’t surprise Tobio. He’d always known Kunimi as one of the smartest people around. Maybe if he’d remembered that earlier, he wouldn’t have ended up here, but he couldn’t bring himself to regret it now.

He was so tired, and he felt heavy. Maybe he was getting sick. It wouldn’t exactly be a surprise after having a heat in the middle of the woods. He just wanted to take Shou and go hide away somewhere and sleep for the next few days.

He wondered if he really had to stay for these negotiations. He probably didn’t have anything to contribute – he wasn’t good at the game like Tooru was. He felt dead on his feet, aching after not having the proper recovery time from a heat.

He just wanted to sleep, and he wanted Shou out of this room and safe.

“How do you propose we give you your home back?” the king asked. “We’ve taken the territory, and we’ve expanded farther west beyond it. Our territory completely surrounds the territory that used to be Seijoh. Your king is dead, and both of your princes are here. What exactly do you want us to do?”

“I propose you give us back the territory that used to be ours,” Kunimi replied. “We’ll promise to stay within that territory as a free state within the borders of Karasuno. We’ll sign an alliance with you, and we won’t fight you, in exchange for your son.

“Also, we’d like to bargain for Oikawa-sama to be returned to us,” he went on. “We’ll trade Kageyama-sama for that. Oikawa-sama has always been our crown prince, so it’s logical that he should be our new king.”

“Since this involves Oikawa, we should probably bring him in on this,” Suga interrupted. “Ennoshita, would you fetch him for us?”

Ennoshita nodded, leaving the throne room through the back entrance. The silence grew thick, and Tobio resisted the urge to fidget. He knew he wouldn’t be doing himself any favors by drawing attention to himself, but the way Suga and Kunimi were staring each other down made him want to squirm. These were two forces of nature defending what was held most dear to them – his children for Suga, his home for Kunimi.

Tobio just wanted to leave.

Shou stepped closer, probably sensing his distress. He caught Tobio’s hand, using his thumb to soothe the back of it. The smell of sun warmed earth was soothing, and Tobio tried to force himself to breathe and relax. The others would sort this out – Tooru would sort this out – and he could take his mate somewhere safe and finally, _finally_ breathe.

After what felt like an eternity but couldn’t have reasonably been more than a few minutes, Ennoshita walked back in, followed by Tooru and Hajime. Tooru was nearly nine months pregnant now, barely a week or so away from his due date, and he was practically waddling at this point. He had none of the usual grace with which he moved, but he still had a regal air about him.

Maybe it was the set of his face. His eyes swept over the resistance fighters gathered before him like he was above them all. His eyes softened with relief, though, when they landed on Tobio. So he’d been worried. Tobio probably shouldn’t have been surprised.

“Kunimi-chan,” Tooru said slowly. “This fine guard here tells me you’ve come with a request about me.”

“We’ve come to bargain for Seijoh back,” Kunimi told him. “We’d like you to be our king, like you were meant to be.”

“Let me guess, you’re trading Hinata-sama for Seijoh and me,” Tooru hummed. “That seems like a steep deal.”

“We’re only trading Hinata-sama for Seijoh,” Kunimi said. “We’re trading Kageyama-sama for you.”

Tooru’s face went carefully blank. Tobio had long since come to be grateful that that face was never directed at him anymore, because it never meant anything but trouble.

“You’d propose leaving my brother – my only surviving family – here in enemy territory?” he asked. “Did you think that was a deal I would accept?”

“It only makes sense, since he’s already mated to their crown prince,” Kunimi sighed. Tooru whipped his head over to Tobio. Tobio tilted his head again, letting Tooru see his mating mark. He could hear Tooru’s gasp from where he stood, but the shock had already faded by the time he looked back at his older brother.

Tooru had always been, if nothing else, a master of the game, and he played to win. His face was already back to its carefully charming smile, revealing nothing.

“Then I suppose I must ask my darling brother what’s going on here,” he said sweetly. “Tobio, care to tell me what happened and what you want?”

“I want to stay with Shou,” Tobio spoke up. He was surprised at how exhausted his voice sounded. Usually even if he was dead tired it wouldn’t show through in his voice.

Maybe he was getting sick. He just felt _weird._

“Fine. We’ll continue these negotiations on the terms Kunimi-chan has proposed,” Tooru said. “Someone please get Tobio a chair, he’s about to collapse.”

Tobio wanted to protest that he was fine, but as he was heavily leaning on Shou, he probably wasn’t fine. Why did he feel so _off_?

The chair didn’t come a moment too soon. He practically fell into it, and he wasn’t sure he could stand up again for a few hours. His legs felt like lead. Someone had brought a chair for Shou as well, and the alpha sat heavily, letting out a sigh as he finally got to take the weight off his legs. He still hadn’t let go of Tobio’s hand.

“There, now that we’re all settled, why don’t we talk?” Tooru smiled. He looked scary, and powerful, and Tobio had never been prouder to be his brother than at that moment.

“What are your thoughts?” Suga asked. He sounded cautious.

“Well, obviously I’m in favor of the demands of Kunimi-chan and his people,” Tooru said calmly. “You didn’t really expect me to hear the demands of my native people for a return of our homeland and me as their king and say no, did you?”

“No, but it’s hardly that simple,” the king said. “How do we know you’ll remain at peace with us if we give you back this land? You’d be entirely within our borders, an attack could be devastating for us. It’s not a position I want to be in. Just as a starting precaution, I’d want you to refrain from keeping or raising a standing army and be willing to accept some of our own soldiers in your castle to make sure everything is as it should be.”

“That demand will come at a price,” Tooru said. “For starters, you’d have to promise to defend us should we ever need it, considering you’re taking away our ability to defend ourselves.”

“Done,” the king agreed easily. “The standing guard from Karasuno will defend you just as if you were citizens of Karasuno yourselves.”

“Another thing,” Tooru went on, holding up his finger. “I want to keep our alliance with Shiratorizawa.”

“I don’t think that’s wise, given how our relationship with Shiratorizawa is currently,” Suga broke in.

“I’m sure Ushijima would be willing to negotiate a treaty, or at least send Satori to do it in his stead,” Tooru said. “They’d love to have some reassurance against war with Karasuno. They have their own problems with the kingdoms to the north. But I’m afraid this is non-negotiable. Their queen is a Seijoh noble who married in to create our alliance, and I will have that alliance in return for castrating my armies.”

He stood tall and fierce, not looking like a weak, pregnant omega, but a grand king. Hajime stood behind him, grim face ready to defend his mate at the slightest provocation. They were one unit, one team, ready to fight the world together.

Tobio hoped he’d be like that with Shou someday.

“Very well,” the king sighed. “You can keep your alliance with Shiratorizawa, provided we can form one with them as well and you agree to whatever number of our own guards we see fit to send to Seijoh. We have no interest in the north. We’re expanding south, so as long as Shiratorizawa brings no war to us, we have no reason to fight with them.”

“What’s to the south that’s so important you had to expand over our kingdom to get there?” Tooru asked. He’d dropped the king act, just a little, his voice genuinely curious.

“An old story,” Suga said after a moment of hesitation. “We have old legends about the birthplace of our people in a place to the south, on the sea. We have stories about lands across the sea. We want to go looking for them, and we needed safe access to the sea to do that.”

Tooru nodded. Tobio could tell he wasn’t completely satisfied, but he would hold his curiosity in check for the time being until the negotiations were finished.

“On to the next thing,” Tooru said. “Seijoh will be a completely free state within Karasuno, not a province or a protectorate. We will have our own king and within our borders, people will be subject to Seijoh law and Seijoh citizenship. You are more than welcome to send an ambassador, but they will not rule us. We will rule ourselves, and they will negotiate between us and you, one free state to another. I’m willing to consider my brother’s mating to your crown prince payment enough for this alliance.”

“This is reasonable, but I would like to add that Karasuno citizens should be allowed to pass freely through Seijoh,” Suga said. “Seijoh citizens will be permitted the same rights through Karasuno.”

“Done,” Tooru agreed.

“One last thing,” the king said. “There are mines of a material we need on your southern border, along with a forest with good pine trees for ship building. We’d like to keep that area, and in return, we will give you some of the land we’ve taken to the west.”

“That’s an area we need for our own interests,” Tooru argued. “You can’t just have it all.”

“What if we made it a shared area?” Kunimi suggested. “You could take the materials you need for your explorations, and we could still take what we need for ourselves. Smaller details about how much each is allowed to take could be determined later.”

“That’s a good idea, Kunimi-chan,” Tooru praised. “Would you accept it?”

“We would,” the king said. “Provided the details about how much we’re allowed to take are favorable.”

“I’m sure we can come to some agreement,” Tooru smiled. “One final thing: Tobio. What exactly do you want?”

“I want to stay here with Shou,” Tobio spoke up. He’d almost fallen asleep sitting down. “But…I don’t want to never see you again.”

“Then on behalf of my brother, I’d like to request that he gets to visit whenever he likes,” Tooru turned back to the king and Suga.

“We’ve already said that Karasuno citizens will be able to move in and out of Seijoh as they please,” Suga said. “Barring any preparations we would make for the safety of our future queen, he’ll be allowed to move about as he pleases within our two kingdoms.”

Tobio hadn’t realized everyone was thinking of him as a citizen of Karasuno now.

He hadn’t realized that was how he was starting to think of himself.

He was the future queen of Karasuno, although he wasn’t sure that was a title he would ever truly accept. He was a second son, not born to rule like Tooru had been. Like Shou had been, he was starting to realize. The shorter alpha never failed to surprise him, and he was starting to realize what a good king Shou would be someday.

“Then…I think we’ve come to an agreement,” Tooru said, sounding pleased. “Of course, I’d like to get this all drawn up in writing, but…Kunimi-chan, do you think this is enough for you to stop fighting back against Karasuno?”

“We’ll lay down our weapons at once,” Kunimi agreed. “This is all we wanted.”

“Wonderful.” Tooru clapped his hands together. “Now if we could just get this in writing and sign with witnesses, I think we’ll find…”

Tobio smelled it before he saw Tooru fall. He was up and out of his seat, running clumsily on his wooden legs as fast as he could to get to his brother. Hajime had already caught his mate, looking intensely worried and curled protectively over him.

Tobio slid in beside them, taking in Tooru’s intensely white face. His hands clutched at his stomach.

“My water broke,” he whispered. “The baby’s coming.”

All hell broke loose.

The resistance fighters all started shouting at once, some not having heard what Tooru had said and some only able to tell what was happening by smell. Some were going for their swords, looking ready to storm the thrones and take their king back by force, while the ones like Kunimi and Makki, who seemed to realize what was going on, tried to calm everyone down.

Suga was immediately calling for a midwife, but Tooru was screeching at anyone who wasn’t Tobio and Hajime that got within five feet of them. It was clear he was panicking, what with the sudden hormone spike of pregnancy and the paranoid state he’d been in for the last four months.

Tobio and Hajime were going to have to deliver this baby themselves.

Hajime picked his panicking mate up, already retreating behind the thrones to return to their room. Tobio stood protectively in front of them, letting Hajime back out of the room and focus all his attention on Tooru.

Tanaka and Ennoshita stood beside him, helping him get Tooru out of the room. They both seemed to realize that nothing was going to calm down until they could get the omega in labor and releasing distress signals enough to stir the entire castle out of there. Tooru clung to Hajime, whimpering, and Tobio shuddered in sympathy pain as the distress scent spiked with another contraction.

Tobio locked eyes with Shou, still sitting in his chair as chaos raged around him. Tobio tried to communicate with his eyes, tell Shou to come find him when everything had calmed down.

He had to focus all his attention on his brother right now, but when this was all over, he wanted his mate, and he wanted to go somewhere safe, somewhere where no one would bother them as they let themselves finally recover.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: Tooru has a baby and more is revealed


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A birth happens

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this might get a little graphic. It's a birth scene. You've been warned.

Everything was going so well. It was everything Tooru had been hoping for. There was, in fact, a resistance movement, and it was led by someone competent. They’d come for him, and he was getting his home back. He’d actually managed to negotiate getting his kingdom back.

His child would grow up free, and Hajime would rule at his side. It was everything he’d wanted.

“Wonderful,” he said, clapping his hands together. “Now if we could just get this in writing and sign with witnesses, I think we’ll find…”

He trailed off, his legs no longer willing to support him. He was almost shocked by this turn of events as he fell down into Hajime’s waiting arms, and it wasn’t until he could feel Tobio sliding in beside him that he realized what the wetness between his legs and the sudden pain in his abdomen meant.

“My water broke,” he whispered, clinging to Hajime. “The baby’s coming.”

He heard everyone down below them erupt into noise, but he couldn’t tell exactly what was happening. There was shouting, and words like “protect the king!” and “no, he’s just going into labor!” floated to him, but he couldn’t make any sense of them.

What he did notice was a scent invading the familiar jasmine and earthy scents of Tobio and Hajime, a scent he recognized but not one he _knew._

_Different, foreign, not his pack…_

“Get away from me!” he screeched. “Don’t touch me! Hajime! Hajime, get me out of here!”

He could barely tell what was happening, but he knew Hajime was picking him up and Tobio was defending them, standing in front to shield them from the outsiders. He couldn’t allow outsiders at the birth of his child. Hajime and Tobio were the only ones he could trust.

Then suddenly everything was quiet and the only things he could smell were his mate and his brother, breathing heavily next to him.

“Back to our room,” Hajime ordered, rumble in his chest shaking Tooru’s side. “Keep everyone else away from him, I think they’re scaring him more. He’s not going to let a midwife he doesn’t know near him, so I guess we’re delivering this baby ourselves.”

“I’ve…never delivered a baby before,” Tobio admitted. He sounded exhausted. In any other state, Tooru would’ve been worried about him. He was worried before the birth of his child became the forefront of his mind. Now, that was all he could think about as his instincts took over.

“I have,” Hajime said. “This’ll probably be messy, but we’ll make it through this. Get us back to our room first, and we’ll take it from there.”

Tobio ran ahead of them, or at least Tooru assumed he did when he couldn’t smell the jasmine as strongly. Strangely enough, Tobio didn’t smell _quite_ the same, although it wasn’t bad enough that he was ordering his brother away from him.

A problem for a later time.

He could vaguely hear Tobio shouting at people to get out of their way, and he couldn’t help but be grateful. He had to protect his child. Anyone not in his family couldn’t be allowed.

They were back in the familiar comfort of his and Hajime’s room before he had time to think about anything else. Hajime laid him carefully on the bed before turning to Tobio.

“I need you to go get me a sharp knife, towels, and warm water,” Hajime instructed. “And ice if you can find any.”

“Ice?”

“He can chew on it and it’ll make him feel better,” Hajime explained. “Go, quickly. I don’t know how fast he’ll go through labor, but I’d rather be prepared for when he’d ready to push.”

“Hajime, what if he…” Tobio trailed off, and Tooru cracked an eye to see Tobio inching towards him, hands reaching out.

“He’s not sick like Hana was, and he doesn’t have a weak constitution like Misaki did,” Hajime said firmly. “We’re not going to lose him like we lost them. So go get what we need. You’ll see him again, and when this is over, you’ll have a niece or nephew.”

Tobio nodded and sprinted off. Tooru reached for his mate.

“Hajime…Hajime, what if he’s right?” Tooru breathed. “What if I die like Hana and Misaki did? What if our baby has to grow up without a mother?”

“That’s not going to happen,” Hajime said fiercely. “Tooru, you’re not going to die. I’m not going to let you. You were so incredibly strong just now, you got our home back for us, and I’m not going back alone with our child. You have to be strong for just a little longer, and then I can be strong for the both of us.”

“Please don’t leave me,” Tooru whispered.

“I told you when we were kids, didn’t I?” Hajime said. “As long as you want me, I’ll be here. I’ll always choose you, and I’ll stay by your side. I’ll be right here through it all, Tooru. So you just focus on our baby, and I’ll make sure you’re safe.”

Tobio bursting back through the door, holding all the supplies Hajime had asked for, cut off any response Tooru would have made. He gratefully accepted the cup of ice Tobio handed to him, chewing on one to try and cool himself down. He felt like he was so hot all of a sudden.

“Alright, Tooru, how long have you been feeling contractions?” Hajime asked.

“All day, since we woke up,” Tooru answered. He hadn’t mentioned them because he’d had an incident about a week ago where he’d thought the baby was coming, but the queen had assured him that they were just phantom contractions and not the real thing yet. He had assumed this was more of the same. He’d expected at least another week before giving birth, but very little had worked out as he’d planned in the last four months.

“I’m going to see how you’re doing now, yeah?” Hajime said, lifting up both of his legs so they were spread apart. Tooru jumped when he felt Hajime’s fingers probing at his hole, but they were withdrawn nearly as soon as he felt them. “You don’t seem to be that open yet. I think we’re going to be here for a while until the baby’s born.”

“How long?” Tobio asked.

“I’m not sure,” Hajime admitted. “My sister was in labor for hours, almost a full day, but she wasn’t moving as fast as Tooru is. We could be here a couple hours at the most.”

“So what do we do until then?”

“Keep him calm. He’s in unfamiliar territory and his hormones are all over the place. He’s scared, and that kind of stress is only going to hurt the baby in the long run. If we can keep him calm, this will be easier on both of them.”

“How do we do that?”

“Here.” Tooru opened his eyes to see Hajime handing Tobio the pitcher of water from their washroom. “Wipe his face down and make sure he stays hydrated. Familiar touch should help.”

“Hajime?” Tooru said.

“I’m right here,” Hajime assured him.

“Stay with me.”

“I’m not going anywhere, and neither is Tobio. We’ll all get through this together.”

He said that, but Tooru was already ready to be done. He wanted the baby out so he could keep them safe better. He wanted the pain to stop.

It came in waves, the pain. Sometimes he felt almost coherent enough to stand and walk around. Hajime encouraged him to do this, supporting him by pulling Tooru’s arm over his shoulders, while Tobio walked carefully at his side to keep him from falling. He couldn’t keep this up for long, though, the pain always flaring and driving him back to the bed with whimpers he would’ve been ashamed of an hour earlier.

In another lull, Hajime helped him change from his soaked clothes into a soft nightgown. He was grateful. The clothes had been cold and chafing, completely uncomfortable, but now he felt warmer and safer.

In everything, the scent of earth and jasmine, familiarity, family, _pack_ , followed him. He still couldn’t put his finger on what smelled different about Tobio’s scent. It wasn’t that altered, but it was different, a more springy, warm feel to the floral scent he was used to. Maybe it was a result of mating with Hinata, but Tooru hadn’t thought his scent had changed this much when he’d mated with Hajime. It was less an addition of Hinata’s scent to Tobio’s and more of a change of Tobio’s scent itself.

Every time he thought he was getting close to the answer, it slipped away in the wake of another contraction that rocked his body. They shook through him, pushing things and pulling things and driving him closer and closer to birth. He clung to Hajime’s hand and wailed through some of the more painful ones, tears springing to his eyes as he gasped for air.

He just wanted this to be over.

“Tobio, are you doing alright?” Hajime asked. Tooru was surprised to hear the question that had been directed at him for the past hour directed at someone else.

“I…I’m fine, I just…I just had another heat while we were at Seijoh,” Tobio said quietly. Tooru was coming down from a crest, pain subsiding enough for him to worry.

“Isn’t it too soon for another one?” Hajime asked carefully.

“It was,” Tobio agreed. “I think it’s because Shou and I mated. It probably messed with my cycle.”

“You mated before your heat?” Tooru asked, the first words he’d spoken that weren’t babbles in a while.

“Of course.” Tobio sounded offended. “I didn’t make the decision in the heat of the moment.”

“It’s alright, we believe you, we just wanted to be sure,” Hajime tried to soothe him. “But you look exhausted, and I know watching your brother give birth can’t be your favorite thing in the world.”

“I’ll manage,” Tobio said stubbornly. “Someone has to help you with Tooru, and he won’t let anybody else near. I can do this. I can sleep later.”

“Later, I want the whole story about you and your new mate, but you’re right. We’ll focus on Tooru now,” Hajime agreed, turning his attention back to Tooru. Tooru was glad, because he could already feel another contraction coming on.

He just wanted this to be over.

Hajime checked him again, running his fingers over Tooru’s second entrance to see how far it was dilated.

“You’re almost there, Tooru,” he praised. “You probably have less than an hour left, and then you’ll be done. You’re doing so well.”

Normally, Tooru would have preened under the praise, but now he was just exhausted. He didn’t want to give birth in another hour, he wanted to give birth _now_ , and he wanted the pain to at least space itself out more so he would have more time to figure out what was so different about Tobio’s scent, but the crests were coming closer and closer together now.

Maybe he would just have to wait until after the baby was born to figure it out, but he hated not knowing.

“Tooru, I think you’re nearly there,” Hajime said, checking again a few moments later. Tooru had been obsessively chewing on the ice, trying to distract himself from the pain. “Do you feel like you need to push?”

“I’m ready to go,” Tooru panted, handing the cup of ice off to Tobio. “Just get this baby out of me.”

“Let’s do this,” Hajime agreed. “Tobio, help him hold his leg back, it’ll make this easier on him. And for the love of the gods, keep him calm. I’m going to be down here getting the baby out, or I’d do it myself.”

After a beat, he felt Tobio standing up next to him, hand on his leg to pull it up and back, free hand gripping his.

“You can do this,” he said, in that overly serious, determined way he had. Tooru really needed it now. “I believe in you. You’re the strongest omega I know. You can do this.”

“Thanks,” Tooru gasped, focused on all the pressure in his body turning downwards.

“Tooru, hold your other leg back, if you can,” Hajime instructed. “Keep your legs spread, it’ll make this easier.”

Tooru hooked a hand under his other knee, pulling it back like Tobio had with his left leg. The end was in sight. If he could just keep this up for a little while longer, he could rest, and hold his baby, and let his mate hold him, and everything would look just a little bit brighter.

“You look ready, Tooru. Go ahead and push,” Hajime told him. Tooru tried, and stopped almost immediately from the pain. It had been rolling all over his torso before, but pushing concentrated the pain in that one place between his legs. It _hurt._

“I can’t,” he whimpered.

“You have to,” Hajime said. “If you don’t the baby can’t come out.”

“It hurts,” he cried.

“I know it does,” Hajime tried to soothe him. “But you have to do this. The baby has to come out now. You have to push.”

Tooru did it, and immediately screamed again. Tobio gripped his hand harder, hand squeezing on his knee in an attempt at comfort. Strangely, it seemed to work. He took a deep breath and pushed, channeling all his pain into the scream and the muscles pushing down, down, bringing his baby out of him.

He pushed again, and if he’d thought he was in pain before, it was nothing compared to now. He felt like he was being split in half from the legs up, and he wailed. Tobio just gripped his hand hard.

“Come on, Tooru, I can see the head,” Hajime told him. “You’re doing so well, just a few more pushes and you should be all the way there.”

“It _hurts_ ,” Tooru whimpered.

“I know it hurts, but you’re almost there,” Hajime assured him. “A few more good pushes, and you’ll be all done.”

Tooru took a deep breath, pushing again with all his might and a scream that would probably sound to the whole castle.

“You’re doing so well, Tooru,” Hajime cooed. “The head’s out, you just need to get the shoulders and it’ll be over. You’re so close.”

Tooru used his grip on Tobio’s hand to leverage himself, pushing again as he once again felt like he was being ripped in two.

“That’s it!” Hajime cheered, pulling away and standing up. “Tobio, get me those towels. We have to dry her off.”

“Her?” Tooru gasped, almost too tired to asked.

“We have a daughter,” Hajime said, wonder in his voice. “We have a little girl, Tooru, you did it!”

“Can I hold her?” Tooru reached out his arms, looking for his baby.

“Let us dry her off first, yeah?” Hajime said as Tobio returned with the towels. They wiped over her tiny body, which was greyer than Tooru had expected.

“Why isn’t she crying?” Tooru asked. “Aren’t babies supposed to cry when they’re born?”

“Give her a second,” Hajime said, tapping on her back before placing her on Tooru’s chest, continuing to towel her off. “Sometimes they take a minute because of the shock.”

Sure enough, no sooner had he spoken than the baby on Tooru’s chest began to wail, echoing Tooru’s cries from earlier. Tobio passed Hajime another clean towel, and they wrapped her up in it, keeping it tight. Hajime carefully cut the cord still attached to Tooru’s body.

Tooru looked down at his baby. With the breath of life in her, her cheeks were already turning red from her cries, and Tooru swore he could see Hajime in the ridge of her brow.

“She looks just like you,” he breathed, unable to tear his eyes from her face for even a moment to look at Hajime. He didn’t have to, though. Hajime was already sliding closer, wrapping an arm around him to look down at their daughter.

“I think she has your face,” Hajime said reverently. “Look, she has your lips.”

“She’s beautiful,” Tobio said quietly. He was standing away from the bed, looking at them with one of his crooked smiles on his face.

“Come here, Tobio,” Tooru said. “Come meet your niece.”

Tobio came closer slowly, like he still wasn’t sure he was allowed, sitting gingerly on the bed to look down at her. She was starting to calm down, her cries quieting. Tobio looked mildly shocked, as if he couldn’t believe something like this baby existed in the world.

“What’s her name?” he asked. Hajime looked at Tooru.

“I’m sure you’ve already got something in mind,” he said to Tooru.

“Well, I wouldn’t pick something without consulting you first, but…what do you think of Yuri?” Tooru asked. Hajime hummed.

“Yuri…Yuri…it’s pretty,” he mused. “I like it. Our daughter, Yuri.”

“Our daughter,” Tooru breathed, looking back down at her. She was tiny and perfect and he was never, ever going to let her go.

Tobio leaned in closer, resting his head on Tooru’s shoulder. Between this birth and his long journey and his unexpected heat, he had to be exhausted. Tooru let him snuggle closer, looking down at Yuri in awe, resting a bit before he got to leave and rest for real.

Tooru felt himself start to shake as his hormones dropped. He was lucky his mate was here to help him care for their newborn baby, because he’d be a mess for a while as he stabilized. He felt hyper sensitive, once again smelling that slightly unfamiliar scent on Tobio.

An unexpected heat…

A new scent…

Tooru sniffed his brother, smelling what was almost the same jasmine but with a blend of sunshine, in addition to what he now recognized as the scent of a mated couple. His jumpy brain finally put the pieces together as he turned to his brother.

“Tobio,” he said, tone shaking them out of the warm, happy bubble they’d fallen into. “You’re pregnant.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: Tobio deals with being pregnant


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tobio has to talk to his mate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still on a roll. Hopefully I can finish this up this weekend so I don't have to worry about this story during finals. Only two chapters left!

_Tobio, you’re pregnant_.

Tobio swung his practice sword at the dummy he was working on with all his might, pretending he could strike the thoughts out of his head with the swing.

_Tobio, you’re pregnant._

He swung the sword harder, feeling the sweat drip down his forehead. He felt light headed. Maybe he would pass out and he wouldn’t have to deal with this for a while.

_Tobio, you’re pregnant._

He screamed in frustration, throwing his sword to the ground. He buried his face in his hands, clutching at his bangs.

“Dammit, Tooru,” he muttered. “You could’ve at least told me what to do now.”

It wasn’t that he doubted the validity of Tooru’s words. Quite the opposite, actually. While heats had exhausted him in the past, they’d never made him feel so weird before. He didn’t have a better explanation for why he felt so off, and pregnancy made perfect sense.

Past that, he just _knew._ The minute Tooru had said the word _pregnant_ , it was like something clicked into place. His body already knew it to be true, and now so did he.  

He was pregnant.

Now what?

He was going to have to tell Shou eventually, that much was obvious. If he was anything like Tooru, he’d be showing visibly in a few months, not to mention how the scent would make it clear. Tooru had only been able to tell because his pregnancy hormones had made him hyper sensitive, but soon enough it would be obvious to anyone.

That didn’t make him less scared, though. He and Shou were barely mated and he was already pregnant. Were they even ready for a child? They only had nine months to prepare for one, and Tobio had been banking on years. He was only eighteen, omegas didn’t have children this young in Seijoh.

And Shou was only nineteen. Surely he didn’t want children yet. Did he even want children at all? Oh gods, what if he didn’t want this baby at all?

Tobio definitely wanted kids, although he didn’t expect to be having them this early. He’d dreamed about finding someone he loved and trusted enough to have children with, of carrying those children himself, of watching them run and play and laugh, but he’d always imagined himself older, in his twenties at the very earliest.

He didn’t doubt that he and Shou could get there eventually – he already had a lot of trust in his alpha, despite all the odds – but they weren’t there yet. He didn’t even know if his mate wanted children at all!

He had to calm down. Think this through. Continuing to avoid Shou wasn’t going to help him. If anything, it would only make everything worse. Pulling away from his mate would only hurt both of them, and Shou would think he’d done something wrong, which he _hadn’t_ , so Tobio needed to suck it up and tell him.

But what if Shou pulled away from him because he didn’t want children? What if he left? They were mated for life, Tobio couldn’t stand it if Shou left him. He’d be alone here in Karasuno, alone and pregnant.

He couldn’t do this.

But he wanted this baby. It was barely a week old inside him, and he was already thinking of it as his baby. It would grow up and be part him and part Shou, and he wanted that. Maybe it was early, and maybe he wasn’t ready yet, but this was his child, and he wanted it.

So avoiding Shou was getting him nowhere, and he was starting to feel the tug of their mating bond anyway. He missed his alpha. It was time to go find him.

He wasn’t exactly sure where to find Shou, but his rooms seemed like a good place to start. Those were empty, but he could hear Shou’s voice next door. He poked his head into the suite next to Shou’s, seeing him playing with Natsu and Hitoka.

Shou’s attention was focused totally on his sister. He laughed with her and played with her, looking like he was having the time of his life. Hitoka sat to the side, smiling and laughing at the two siblings.

Tobio slipped into the room, sitting next to Hitoka. She gave him a smile in greeting.

“Those two always look like they’re having fun together,” she whispered to him conspiratorially. “I can’t wait to see what he’s like with his own children.”

“He wants children?” Tobio asked. He hoped he didn’t sound too desperate. Maybe he’d been worrying for nothing.

“Of course he does,” Hitoka scoffed. “Look at him with Natsu, he loves children. He’d probably be over the moon to have his own.”

Tobio hummed, watching his mate play with his little sister. Natsu was the first to notice he’d come into the room, standing up and walking away from Shou. Her walk drew Shou’s attention to Tobio for the first time.

He looked surprised to see Tobio there at first, eyes going wide for just a second, before his face fell back into a smile. Tobio felt his heart squeeze. Shou was happy to see him. Shou wanted him around. He almost wanted to be annoyed at how happy that made him, but before he could think about it more, Natsu tumbled into his lap.

She looked up at him, big brown eyes staring into his, as she giggled and babbled at him. Tobio still didn’t entirely know what to do with her, but at least he wasn’t worried he was going to hurt her anymore. As long as he was gentle, it seemed she could take care of herself just fine.

“Patty cake,” she demanded, and he held up his hands obediently. She tapped on his palms, singing the rhyme as he held his hands forward in the correct sequence, letting her play. He felt eyes on him and looked up to see a look of intense fondness focused on him from Shou.

As soon as he caught Shou’s eyes, Shou looked down, cheeks turning pink. Tobio looked down, feeling his face stretch into a smile as Natsu continued to play.

“Are we going to start training together again?” Shou asked when Natsu was done. Tobio looked up at him. “I still haven’t beaten you, you know. I can’t just let you win all the time.”

“You think you can beat me?” Tobio asked, falling into his old habits. In truth, he wasn’t sure anymore. Shou had been getting a lot better, using his reflexes to his advantage now. It was possible that he could legitimately beat Tobio in a fair fight now.

“I won’t rest until I do!” Shou promised, holding up his fists like he was bracing for a fight. Just like that, any awkwardness between them was gone. They were still the same people. Tobio just had to find a way to tell Shou he was pregnant now.

***

“She’s so beautiful,” Tobio said, looking down at his niece. Tooru had let him hold Yuri while he and Hajime rested, Hajime completely out, Tooru still half awake.

“Of course,” Tooru murmured sleepily. “She’s my daughter, after all.”

Tobio snorted. Tooru might have grown up a lot, but his personality was the same as it was when they were little. He could tell his brother was just proud of his daughter, though.

“You love her so much already,” he marveled, watching as Yuri’s face scrunched up in her sleep before relaxing again.

“Of course I do,” Tooru said. “You’ll understand when you have your own, but of course I love her already.”

Tobio felt significantly less calm after the reminder that in less than a year, he’d have a baby himself.

“What do I do, Tooru?” he asked quietly.

“First of all, you really need to tell your alpha,” Tooru told him, no nonsense in his tone. “Whatever you decide to do, you have to do it with him. This isn’t something you can do on your own anymore.”

“Whatever I decide to do?”

Tooru bit his lip.

“If you’re really not ready to have a baby, I know of an herb that’ll…stop you from being pregnant,” he said slowly. “It’ll make you sick and when you get better, you won’t be pregnant anymore.”

Tobio felt his stomach clench protectively at the idea of his baby dying. Even if it was scary, he wanted this baby. His face must have shown that, because Tooru laughed softly and nodded.

“Yeah, I didn’t think you’d go for that,” he said. “You don’t seem like someone who’d choose that path. Most people don’t, it’s not an easy path, and the only ones who do choose it are desperate.”

“What if he doesn’t want a baby this young, Tooru?” Tobio asked. He’d reconciled with himself that Shou probably did want children someday, but he was still caught up on how young they were. How was he supposed to tell Shou? “What will I do if he leaves?”

“First of all, even if he _does_ leave, you’ll always have us,” Tooru said firmly. “We’re your family no matter what, and if it comes down to it, we’ll help you take care of your baby. But I don’t think we’ll have to. Hinata doesn’t seem like the type to leave when things get tough, he’s too stubborn for that.”

“What if he resents me for being pregnant so early?” Tobio asked. It sounded almost as bad as Shou outright leaving.

“That would be stupid, considering I know how babies are made and it took both of you to get here,” Tooru scoffed. “Besides, you’re really not that young to be pregnant for a Karasuno omega. Most of them mate and bear their first children around your age. And you’re a Karasuno omega now. I doubt he’d reject you because you’re pregnant too young. He’ll be surprised, yes, because alphas are always surprised when their mates get pregnant, but I don’t think he’ll be upset like you think.”

“I just don’t know,” Tobio whispered. “I’m scared.”

“Come here,” Tooru said, lifting the blanket to give Tobio space in front of him. Tobio obeyed, standing carefully with Yuri and sliding in beside Tooru with her. He laid her carefully between him and Tooru, looking at his brother. “You’re going to get through this. I know it’s scary, and I know this is a lot younger than you thought you’d ever be pregnant, but you’re going to get through this.”

“What if I don’t survive childbirth?” Tobio asked. “What if the baby grows up like I did, without a mother? What if I leave Shou because I don’t survive?”

“You have no reason to think you won’t survive,” Tooru said firmly. “You’re so much stronger than your mother was. I know you’re scared, we’ve both always been scared of childbirth because we lost our mothers, but it’s actually kind of unusual to die in childbirth. Almost everyone survives it just fine. I survived it just fine, and so will you.”

“Thanks, Tooru,” Tobio murmured. He was starting to fall asleep, the warmth of his family around him. The familiar scent of _pack_ soothed him, and he felt safer than he had in a long time. He was still tired after his heat because he’d been running around trying to avoid talking to his mate, meaning he hadn’t really gotten the rest he’d need even more now that he was pregnant. He’d wanted this with Shou. Maybe he could go get it, if he could just stop avoiding his mate.

He knew he had to talk to Shou. Tooru had only confirmed what he already knew deep in his bones. He needed Shou to know, and he needed them to face it together.

But for now, he drifted off to sleep, his niece in his arms and the smell of his family surrounding him.

***

“I’ll beat you for sure this time!” Shou challenged. Tobio lifted his practice sword, settling into his stance.

“That’s what you say every time,” he teased. It was so easy to settle back into a routine with Shou. It gave him hope that everything really would be alright. “How many times have you won, again?”

“This time for sure!” Shou shouted, raising his sword. He was so much better than when they’d started. He stood easily, with a casual grace that only hard training could give. He raised his sword with confidence, never letting it droop. He didn’t fall into traps like he did when he was first learning, and he had a few tricks of his own up his sleeve.

He was finally good enough to give Tobio a fair fight, and maybe he was even good enough to win now, but Tobio wouldn’t let it happen easily. If Shou managed to win, it would be because he was truly better than Tobio, and Tobio couldn’t let that happen.

They circled each other, each watching the other move. In the past, Shou would have just charged right in, sword flying, but now he actually thought before he moved.

He still attacked first, quick as a snake striking, but Tobio had come to learn how Shou would lean before moving, and he parried the cut to his legs in the nick of time. He returned with a strike of his own, but Shou was too fast to let the rap to his head land, ducking and blocking as he spun out of the way.

Tobio gritted his teeth as he tried to attack from a distance and use his height to his advantage, but Shou just danced away from him and out of range. Shou had to come in close for any of his attacks to land, but he was so fast that he could pull it off.

Tobio was on the defensive for the first time ever. He backed away from the orange whirlwind that was his opponent, looking for an opening to attack. When Shou struck at his head, leaving his entire body open, Tobio took his chance. He dropped low, striking out at Shou, but Shou jumped so high he completely cleared Tobio’s head.

Tobio barely had time to turn and block the attack Shou aimed at his back. Shou’s eyes were wide and focused, taking everything in. He was always evolving, always finding new ways to blend his attacks just for his opponent. It wasn’t going to be much longer before Tobio was chasing him, trying to evolve as fast as him, instead of the other way around.

Shou gave him something to work for, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

He didn’t have much time to think, because Shou was already moving against him again. He seemed to be moving faster rather that slower, though they’d already been going for longer than they’d ever gone before. His stamina was still holding, but he just couldn’t keep up that intense speed like Shou could. It was insane.

He was still skilled, though, and far more experienced than Shou was, and he wasn’t going down without a fight. Shou might have been fast enough to make him rethink everything he’d ever learned, but he’d had the muscle memory so pounded into him that he had time to think while his body moved automatically to defend itself.

Shou proved himself capable with an attack directly to Tobio’s open stomach. Tobio knew he should just turn, let the practice sword graze him, and continue the fight. They didn’t count grazes as wins, only wounds that would be immediately fatal or if one of them managed to get the sword away from the other.

But that wasn’t what Tobio did at all. Before he even realized it, his instincts had driven him to curl protectively around his stomach, instead letting Shou rap him smartly on the shoulder.

He barely heard Shou’s pleased cry, too busy staring at the floor in shock. He hadn’t even meant to do that, but apparently just knowing he was pregnant was enough to drive him to defend his baby at all costs.

“I finally did it, I finally beat Tobio!” Shou crowed, not realizing the crisis Tobio was currently going through. He did realize quickly enough when Tobio didn’t move, though. “Tobio? What happened, what’s wrong?”

He took Tobio’s face in his hands, probably scanning for injuries, but Tobio was suddenly scared. He stood up quickly, looking around the room. Asahi gave him a curious look, and Shou just looked concerned.

“I…I have to go,” he stuttered, turning and running from the room.

“Tobio!” he heard Shou cry behind him, but he was already running. He really needed to tell Shou now. He couldn’t keep this a secret any more.

***

“Shou?” he asked, sticking his head into Shou’s room. Shou was sitting on his bed, reading over something, but he put it aside the minute he saw Tobio.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“I just…I need to talk to you,” Tobio said, swallowing. He could do this. He loved Shou, he _trusted_ Shou, he could do this. “It’s not bad, I just need to tell you something.”

“What is it?” Shou asked. He took Tobio’s hands and pulled him to sit on the bed beside him. Tobio sat, staring down at his own legs. This would be easier if he didn’t have to look at Shou, he decided.

“I just…” he took a deep breath. Why was this so hard?

“Is this about why you’ve been avoiding me?” Shou asked quietly. Tobio nodded without looking up. He’d figured Shou would’ve noticed that by now. “You know you can tell me anything, right?”

“Do you promise you won’t get mad?” Tobio asked carefully. Shou tightened his hands around Tobio’s.

“Of course I won’t get mad, Tobio. What’s going on?” Shou sounded alarmed. Tobio took a deep breath. He could do this. He _had_ to do this. It was now or never, and he really needed it to be now.

He lifted his head to look into Shou’s warm brown eyes.

“I’m pregnant.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: Hinata finds out his omega is pregnant.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A birth announcement and a wedding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is the last real chapter of this fic. The next chapter will be an epilogue, set a few years in the future (I don't know how many yet because my outline doesn't say because I actually suck at making outlines). I can't believe I've written nearly 50,000 words in less than a month.

Shouyou wasn’t an idiot. He knew Tobio was avoiding him. What he didn’t understand was _why._

From what he knew about mating, a new pair tended to be even clingier than usual for a few months. It was nearly painful to be apart, and Shouyou could feel the bond tugging at him. He’d seen Tobio a few times around the castle, but the omega had always ducked out of sight quickly, and by the time Shouyou caught up to where he’d been, he was gone.

Shouyou was torn between letting Tobio have his space and chasing him down to demand to know what was wrong. He’d decided on mostly leaving Tobio alone, though, in case it was a problem with him. Instead, he took to following his mate around at a distance, trying to see if he could figure out what was wrong by himself.

One particular time, he saw Tobio laying into a practice dummy. He was just about to walk out and offer to practice with him – they’d always done well in practice together, and maybe it would get them back to the comfortable friendship they’d had before – but before he could, Tobio threw his sword to the ground with a scream of frustration. Shouyou froze in place, watching Tobio scrub his hands over his face.

“Dammit, Tooru,” Shouyou could barely hear from where he stood. “You could’ve at least told me what to do now.”

Shouyou quietly backed away. He still wasn’t sure exactly what was wrong, but now he was really worried. What if Tobio regretted mating with him? What if that was why he was avoiding him? Now that they were safe, what if he’d realized the decision made in the heat of the moment wasn’t the right one?

Shouyou couldn’t think of any other reason for Tobio to avoid him, but he still didn’t know why. He was comforted when Tobio showed up to see him and to play with Natsu. He’d even managed to get Tobio to agree to start training again. Surely if they spent some time together, Shouyou could fix whatever was wrong.

Asahi had very few things to correct in their lesson, letting him instead move quickly into sparring with Tobio. Maybe the older alpha could sense how eager Shouyou was to get to that part of training. He and Tobio had always clicked well when they were competing with each other.

It was the best fight they’d had so far. They were much more evenly matched, Shouyou’s polished reflexes and speed matching up well against Tobio’s years of training. Shouyou practically danced around him, almost laughing at how much better he’d gotten and how fun this was.

He didn’t think he’d won. He didn’t think the graze he’d aimed at Tobio’s stomach had landed. Even if it had, it shouldn’t have been enough to count. But Tobio had hunched protectively over himself, letting Shouyou drop his practice sword across Tobio’s shoulders.

Shouyou didn’t realize what had happened at first, besides the fact that he’d finally beaten the omega.

“I finally did it, I finally beat Tobio!” he cheered, raising his hands in the air. His celebration didn’t last long when he could suddenly smell distress in Tobio’s scent.

“Tobio? What happened, what’s wrong?”

He picked Tobio’s face up from where it was staring at the ground. Maybe he’d hurt his mate without even realizing it. He looked for any signs of injury. Tobio’s blue eyes were wide with shock and something like…fear?

Tobio stood up quickly, pulling away from Shouyou’s hands. Shouyou reached after him instinctively, but Tobio was already looking around, taking in the concerned look from Asahi.

“I…I have to go,” he stammered, before turning and running from the room.

“Tobio!” Shouyou called after him, but it was too late. He was already gone. Shouyou turned to Asahi, both of them sporting twin looks of alarm. “What did I do wrong, Asahi-san?”

“I don’t…I don’t know,” Asahi told him. “I don’t have an omega, but…I didn’t realize they were this high maintenance.”

“He’s not,” Shouyou mused. “I’ve never seen him do anything like that before. What if he really is hurt and he was trying to protect whatever was hurt? What if I’m the one who hurt him?”

“It sounds like you need to talk to him,” Asahi said, looking nervous as Shouyou fired the questions off faster and faster.

“I would if he would let me,” Shouyou sighed. “He’s avoiding me.”

Asahi gave him a helpless look, which wasn’t all that helpful even if it did mirror what Shouyou was feeling.

In the end, it had to be Tobio coming to him to resolve it, not the other way around.

“Shou?” a quiet voice asked. Shouyou whipped his head up from reading the papers his mother had given him on Shiratorizawa to see Tobio standing in his doorway hesitantly.

“What’s wrong?” Shouyou asked. Tobio looked like he was still trying to decide between staying and running away. Shouyou really hoped he’d choose to stay. He was tired of this cat and mouse game they were playing.

“I just…I need to talk to you,” Tobio said, stepping slowly into the room. Shouyou tried to make himself as non-threatening and open as possible. Whatever was going on, he didn’t want it to end too soon. “It’s not bad, I just need to tell you something.”

“What is it?” Shou asked. Tobio was close enough now for him to reach out and take the omega’s hands in his. He pulled Tobio closer to sit on the bed beside him. This was good, now that they were talking about it they could fix it together. Tobio stared down at his lap, still looking like he was considering running away, so Shouyou kept a hold on his hands, trying to give him reassurance.

“I just…” Tobio started, heaving a sigh. His brow furrowed with frustration. What was he trying to say?

“Is this about why you’ve been avoiding me?” Shouyou asked him gently. Tobio nodded, eyes still focused on his lap. “You know you can tell me anything, right?”

“Do you promise you won’t get mad?” Tobio asked quietly. Shouyou squeezed his hands around Tobio’s. What was he so afraid of? Had he done something?

“Of course I won’t get mad, Tobio. What’s going on?” Shouyou asked. He noted that his voice sounded alarmed now. What exactly was going on?

Tobio took a few more deep breaths before finally, _finally_ lifting his head to meet Shouyou’s eyes. His eyes were wide and blue and scared, and Shouyou felt his heart squeeze.

“I’m pregnant,” Tobio whispered.

Shouyou sat in shock for a moment. Of all the things he’d expected with all that build up, this wasn’t even on the list. This was entirely out of what he’d thought was going on with Tobio.

He must have waited too long to respond, because Tobio ripped his hands out of Shouyou’s and stood up, probably ready to run for real. Shouyou couldn’t let him run away again, so before he could even think about what he was doing, he reached out to grab Tobio’s arm.

“Please don’t run away again,” Shouyou pleaded. “Why would I be mad that you’re pregnant?”

“Because…we’re so young…” Tobio trailed off. He looked cautiously hopeful.

“We’re really not that young to be having our first child,” Shouyou told him. “Maybe it’s different for Seijoh, but we’re about the average age for most couples to start having children. I’m not upset that you’re pregnant now, if that’s what you were so worried about.”

Tobio let out a sigh of relief, sitting back down and dropping his head to rest on Shouyou’s shoulder.

“You got pregnant during your heat, didn’t you?” Shouyou asked, resting a hand on Tobio’s shoulder. He was so glad this was the problem. It was so much easier to fix than anything he’d been worried about. “How can you already tell? I thought even omegas couldn’t sense a difference in the first month.”

“Usually we can’t, but Tooru smelled me while he was in labor,” Tobio said, voice slightly muffled against Shouyou’s shoulder. “His hormones were all over the place and he was more sensitive than usual. He’s always been good at scent stuff, though. He’s really smart about it.”

“You’re really pregnant?” Shouyou asked. Not that he didn’t believe Tobio, but he just wanted to hear it again.

“Yes, I’m really pregnant,” Tobio said.

“This isn’t too young for you?” Shouyou asked. “I mean, this is normal for me, so even though I wasn’t expecting you to want children now, it’s not a huge shock. But this is young for Seijoh, isn’t it?”

“It is, but I’m not upset about it,” Tobio said. “I…I want this baby.” He folded his hands protectively over his stomach.

“You realize my mother is going to be over the moon about this, right?” Shouyou asked. “The last time we had a new baby in the family was Natsu, and that was four years ago. He’s going to be ecstatic about having another baby around.”

“He’ll help me with this, right?” Tobio asked. “I…never knew my mother. I never had a younger sibling. I don’t really know what to do with babies.”

“You’d probably have to physically stop him from helping,” Shouyou giggled. “You don’t have to do this on your own, you know. Everyone here will help you. You’re a Karasuno omega now, after all. You’re our future queen.”

“About that…” Tobio started. “I don’t think I want to be called the queen. I wasn’t taught how to rule like you and Tooru were. I can’t do what Suga does and help you run the kingdom. The best I can do is help with the military and stuff like that. I can fight, but I don’t know how to do the other stuff like you do.”

“No one’s going to force you to take the title if you don’t want it,” Shouyou assured him. “I think you’re worrying about this too much, but if you really don’t want to be called queen, you could stay as the prince of Karasuno or royal consort or whatever you want to be called.”

“Can we just…call me the prince of Karasuno?” Tobio asked. “I’d like that more than being the queen.”

“If that’s what you want.”

They sat in silence, just enjoying each other’s company in the way Shouyou had wanted to after they’d gotten back from Seijoh.

“Hey Tobio?” he broke the silence. Tobio hummed. “Speaking of titles, now that we’re mated my parents want us to do a formal hand fasting ceremony.”

“Mating isn’t enough to count?” Tobio asked, picking his head off Shouyou’s shoulder to look at him.

“It is, but we have this whole ceremony where we add both our names to our record books,” Shouyou said. “It just makes everything official legally. No one’s going to argue against the validity of a mating bond.”

“Do I have to be in front of a lot of people?” Tobio asked. Shouyou nodded, and Tobio groaned, burying his face back into Shouyou’s shoulder.

“Oh come on, it won’t be that bad,” Shouyou laughed. “The ceremony is about an hour, tops. Then a ball, which you’ve already proven you can sit through and even dance at, and you’ll be all done.”

“We haven’t exactly had the best experiences with balls,” Tobio grumbled.

“This time will be different,” Shouyou promised him. “Besides, I think we can roll the hand fasting and the pregnancy announcement into one event so you don’t have to sit through two. Then you can go back to ignoring the public if you want.”

“We have to announce the pregnancy?” Tobio asked. Shouyou wanted to bury his face in his hands. Sometimes Tobio was really dense.

“Yes, Tobio, we have to announce the pregnancy,” Shouyou sighed.

“I didn’t think it was that big a deal,” Tobio muttered.

“You’re carrying the heir to the throne of Karasuno, and you don’t think it’s that big a deal?” Shouyou asked incredulously. “Didn’t your brother make an announcement when he got pregnant? Is that not a think you do in Seijoh?”

“He did, but…oh,” Tobio looked a little shocked. “This baby is the future king of Karasuno.”

“Have you forgotten who you’re mated to?” Shouyou asked, shaking his head. “Yes, our children will be the future rulers of this kingdom, and the people have the right to know that we’re expecting the first one.”

“Promise you’ll let me sit out if I don’t want to dance?” Tobio asked.

“Promise.”

***

Sometimes Shouyou really couldn’t believe the amount of work that went into planning a hand fasting ceremony. The few he’d seen had always looked simple enough, just an exchange of vows and the right hands of each of the pair tied together with ribbon.

But he was running around nearly nonstop, sending off invitations, greeting arriving guests, helping his mother pick out clothes and colors and foods – apparently “meat buns” wasn’t an acceptable answer to what he wanted at the wedding feast. They’d been working double time, trying to get the ceremony ready since Shouyou and Tobio were already mated, not to mention trying to get ready for the pregnancy announcement before Tobio started showing. Based on how fast his brother had started showing, they didn’t have a lot of time, so they’d only had a month to plan what promised to be the biggest party the castle had seen that year.

Shouyou would have been happy with a small ceremony that was over quickly, but he knew that wasn’t how being a royal worked. They had to put on a show for their people, something Tobio was only just now learning.

Shouyou had spent any spare time he wasn’t planning for the hand fasting fussing over his mate. It didn’t help matters that Tobio thought he could still do everything he’d done before he was pregnant. Maybe he was right that he wasn’t showing yet and didn’t have to worry about the extra weight slowing him down, but he got tired faster than he used to, even if he wouldn’t admit it.

Shouyou had nearly had a heart attack when Tobio asked to continue training.

“I’m not going to fight someone who’s pregnant,” he’d protested.

“You fought me while I was pregnant!” Tobio shot back.

“Yeah, because I didn’t know you were pregnant at the time!”

“And I did just fine, didn’t I?” Tobio argued. “You’re not going to treat me like a doll for my entire pregnancy, are you?”

“First of all, no, you didn’t do _just fine_ ,” Shouyou countered. “You cowered to protect your stomach. Because you’re _pregnant_.”

“But now I know I have the instinct to do that, so I can get around it,” Tobio had tried to defend himself, but Shouyou had cut him off.

“You have those instincts for a _reason_ ,” he said. “Besides, I don’t want to beat you in a fight because you have a handicap. I want to win for real. When I beat you, neither of us is going to be pregnant.”

“You wouldn’t be pregnant anyway,” Tobio muttered. “Fine. No training. But don’t treat me like a doll either. It’ll drive both of us crazy.”

Besides some extra fussing – that mostly involved Shouyou making sure Tobio got enough to eat and didn’t stay on his feet for too long at a time – Shouyou had managed to keep that request.

But the day they’d been waiting for was finally here. The guests were all settled, the preparations were all in place, and today Shouyou would write his name beside Tobio’s in their record books.

So it was natural to be a little nervous, and Shouyou had always had a nervous stomach.

“Shouyou, why aren’t you ready?” his mother asked, storming into his room. “You’re supposed to be heading down there now!”

“I just…” Shouyou held his hand over his mouth.

“Oh darling,” his mother hugged him. “You have nothing to worry about. You and Tobio are already mated, and he’s already carrying your child. This is just a formality. Nothing is going to change between you two today.”

“I…oh,” Shouyou said, calming down. “Thanks mom.”

“Thank me later. Get down there _now._ ”

Sometimes his mother was a little scary.

Shouyou was fast, though, so he was out the door and ready to go in minutes. He made sure not to trip over his bright yellow ceremonial robes. Karasuno used yellow for weddings, but he’d been told Seijoh used blue. He and Tobio would be wearing the traditional dress of their respective kingdoms, so he wasn’t entirely sure what to expect of his mate. They hadn’t seen each other all day and wouldn’t until the ceremony.

His mother was hot on his heels, but not nearly as fast. Since his father would be performing the ceremony, his mother would walk him to the front and give him away.

“Stop for a minute,” his mother commanded when they got to the throne room. He sucked in a few deep breaths before standing upright to pat Shouyou down.

“Mom, I’m ready,” Shouyou complained.

“Alright, fine, let’s go,” his mother agreed. He poked his head into the room, waving his hand to signal everyone to be ready. He tucked Shouyou’s arm under his own, pushing in through the door.

Natsu was already waiting, a basket of flowers in her hands. She skipped down the aisle formed by the seats they’d brought in, dropping flowers in their path. Shouyou wanted to laugh. She seemed so happy.

He and his mother reached his father and turned and waited. Tobio appeared in the door he’d just come through and he felt his jaw drop.

Tobio was dressed in a Seijoh style suit of white and blue that made his eyes glow like sapphires. The bracelet Shouyou had given him was clearly displayed on his left wrist, and the necklace Shouyou had meant to give him months ago but had only given him recently was around his neck. Shouyou barely noticed his brother walking him down the aisle. He only had eyes for his mate.

Tobio looked up at him, looking almost shy as he and his brother walked down the aisle. When they reached the front, his brother and Shouyou’s mother placed their right hands together and stepped back.

“Thank you all for coming to witness the joining of my son with his mate,” his father said, starting the ceremony. “Today will witness the legal hand fasting of Sawamura Shouyou, called Hinata, and Kageyama Tobio, second prince of Seijoh. Any objections will be heard now, or forever hold your peace.”

He held for a beat of silence before going on.

“Shouyou, do you take Tobio as your legal mate, to care for in times of sickness and health, to defend in times of hardship, and love as your own heart?”

“I do,” Shouyou said firmly.

“Tobio, do you take Shouyou as your legal mate, to care for in times of sickness and health, to defend in times of hardship, and love as your own heart?”

“I do,” Tobio said. His voice sounded thick, like he might start crying.

“Then as is my right as king of Karasuno, I declare you joined before the gods and this kingdom.” His father wrapped a ribbon around both of their joined hands. “You may write your names in our book of records, that all may know what transpired here today.”

Shouyou carefully pulled his right hand away from Tobio’s to take up the pen. He wrote his name under his father’s. Tobio took the pen next and wrote his own name under Shouyou’s mother’s name.

“Let it be known that these two are joined together today,” his father said. “You may kiss each other and seal the ceremony.”

Shouyou lifted up onto his toes as Tobio leaned down. They kissed quickly, not wanting to draw out the time attention was focused on them.

“In addition to their hand fasting announcement, we have another announcement for the two of them,” his mother spoke up, standing beside his father. “Tobio is now carrying a child who will become Karasuno’s future king.”

The audience burst into applause, and Shouyou grinned, holding on to Tobio’s hand.

Everyone moved quickly into the great hall for the ball afterwards. Shouyou was willing to let Tobio take a minute and sit, but instead he extended his hand to Shouyou, asking silently for a dance.

“You did well today,” Shouyou told him. “I’m surprised you were so good in front of all those people.”

“I was just staring at you the whole time,” Tobio admitted. “I didn’t even notice everyone else.”

Shouyou laughed as Tobio spun him. The party continued around them with laughter and light and chatter, but Shouyou only had eyes for his mate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: where are they now?


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue: where are they now

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story has come to its end! It's a little sad, but I do have plans for more stories in this series (maybe you can already see the stories I still need to tell). I'll do my thank yous and future plans at the end.

_Epilogue: ten years later_

“Well, that should clean up our trade deals nicely,” Satori said with a grin. Kunimi nodded, and Shou smiled.

“This does seem favorable to Seijoh, yes,” Kunimi agreed.

“Then we’re done here,” Shou said. “You’re both welcome to stay as long as you like, as always.”

“I think I’ll head back to Seijoh tonight,” Kunimi said, holding up his hand. “I miss my mate.”

“I’ll stay for the night, sure,” Satori agreed. “I don’t get to see either of you very often, it would be nice to catch up. My mate and daughters can live without me for one more day.”

“That’s fine. Tobio?” Shou called over his shoulder. Tobio snapped out of the carefully watchful state he fell into during meetings while he watched his mate’s back.

“Hmm?”

“Go sit down. You’ve been on your feet long enough today.”

“I’m your personal bodyguard. I can stand all day just fine.”

“Darling, I know your feet hurt when you’re pregnant. Go sit down. The other guards can handle me for a few hours.”

Tobio sighed, but dropped into the seat Kunimi had just vacated. Satori leaned toward him, grinning.

“Finally pregnant again, hmm? You sure waited a long time.”

“Tooru hasn’t had any children other than Yuri,” Tobio argued. “And I had my hands full with Kosuke, this is the first time I’ve felt like I could handle having another baby.”

“That’s very true,” Satori agreed. “Natsu probably gives you trouble as well, doesn’t she?”

Tobio groaned. Natsu had grown into a teenage terror just as bad as her brother had been. At fourteen, she had everyone in the castle wrapped around her fingers, and the old king and queen had done little to curb her. She was headstrong, but remarkably intelligent. She would make another kingdom a good queen one day.

“Everything’s still going well with Seijoh?” Satori asked. “I haven’t had a chance to see it in years.”

“Couldn’t you visit before you go back to Shiratorizawa?” Shou asked.

“There’s not much for me to see,” Satori admitted. “Shiratorizawa is more my home than Seijoh ever was. That’s where my family is. I just miss a few friends from Seijoh when I’m up in the north.”

“I’m sure Tooru would love to see you,” Tobio offered. Tooru and Satori had always been close friends when they were younger.

“Maybe I’ll visit him some other time,” Satori mused. “Takara wants to meet Yuri. She’s never seen a female alpha before. I know Rina is curious too, even if she won't admit it.”

“Hajime’s going to be beating potential suitors off with sticks before long,” Shou groaned. Tobio had to agree. Yuri had presented young at eleven, but as a rare female alpha, she was drawing attention from across the kingdoms. When the time came for her to pick a mate, she would have her choice of almost anyone from any kingdom.

“Speaking of children, how’s Kosuke?” Satori asked. “I haven’t seen him yet.”

“He’s probably around,” Shou said. “I told him we would spend some time with him after our meeting. He’s probably lurking somewhere waiting for us to let him come out.”

A small scuffing sound drew Tobio’s attention to the corner of the room. Kosuke stepped out from behind a pillar, looking sheepish but altogether not at all apologetic.

“Come say hello to Satori, then,” Tobio sighed, waving to his son. “I know you’ve wanted to meet him.”

Kosuke ran over, fast as his father. His hair was as bright red as his father’s was, but he’d inherited Tobio and Misaki’s bright blue eyes. He’d probably be taller than Shou, something Tobio laughed at and Shou grumbled about.

Kosuke looked curiously at Satori, tilting his head, as Satori gave him the same treatment.

“Are you really the queen of Shiratorizawa?” Kosuke finally asked.

“Yep!” Satori replied cheerfully. “I married their king almost sixteen years ago. Well, he wasn’t king then. He was just the prince when we met.”

“You really left home when you were eighteen to marry a prince you’d just met?” Kosuke asked with stars in his eyes. He’d loved the stories Tobio had told him about Satori, the omega with not many friends who believed in romance and adventure and found both when the prince of Shiratorizawa came looking for an alliance through marriage.

“Yes, I really did,” Satori said, leaning in to bop Kosuke on the nose. “I knew him for a few months before I agreed to leave Seijoh and go to Shiratorizawa with him, but we didn’t get married for almost a year after that. I knew, though. When he asked me to go back to Shiratorizawa with him, I knew I was going to end up mating with him.”

“How did you know?” Kosuke asked.

“Sometimes, you just know,” Satori said. “Why don’t you ask your parents? Their story isn’t that different from mine.”

Kosuke turned to Tobio and Shou, eyes shining. He was still young enough, just turned ten, that he hadn’t realized his parents could have stories just as fascinating as the ones they told him about their friends.

“You want the whole story now?” Shou asked, laughing. Kosuke nodded. Tobio settled in, propping his feet up on an abandoned chair and folding his hands over his swelling stomach. With how often he and Shou were going to interrupt each other, this would probably take a while.

He and Shou took turns telling their son – or rather, interrupting when the other strayed too far from the truth as they remembered it – the story of how they met and eventually fell in love. The story of a young omega soldier who never thought he’d be able to trust another person with his heart and an alpha prince with absolutely no idea what to do with romance. The story of a pair that had hated each other at first and through a series of competitions and getting to know each other, had become friends. The story of a love that blossomed under duress and a bond formed earlier than either had expected, though both had wanted it.

They even told him the story of him, how they’d never expected to have him so young and how that had been their first trial as a mated couple. How they’d pulled through stronger than ever.

They told him of raising a baby as Shou learned to rule over his kingdom and Tobio learned to protect him while he was doing it. They told him of expanding down to the sea and finally sending off the expedition Shou’s parents had dreamed of. They told him of how they’d slowly but surely patched things up with Seijoh until the two kingdoms were cordial and he was able to be friends with his cousin Yuri.

At the end of it all, Kosuke’s mouth hung open. For once, he didn’t seem to have any questions left to ask.

“Ko-chan!” an excited voice called from the doorway. Natsu had poked her ginger head in, looking for her nephew, who was really more like her cousin with the way the two had become playmates. “Come on, I have something to show you!”

Before Kosuke could snap out of it, she’d already grabbed his arm and dragged him out the door. Tobio looked at his two companions, breaking out a smile.

“He’s probably going to have a million questions for us when he has time to think about it,” Shou said.

“You two have had quite the epic romance,” Satori told them. “I’d be surprised if he didn’t.”

“Don’t think you’re off the hook,” Tobio warned. “Your story is at least as good as ours. He’s going to want to hear it from you at some point.”

“And I’d be happy to tell it to him,” Satori said. “If he doesn’t catch me before I go back to Shiratorizawa tomorrow, I’ll always be back to make sure our alliance is running swimmingly. It’s been so much smoother since I took over for Tanji-kun.”

Tobio nodded. Satori was much better to deal with than old Washijou-sensei had ever been.

“I think I’ll retire for the night,” Satori yawned, stretching. “Same rooms as always?”

“They’re unofficially yours,” Tobio agreed.

“Good. I’ll see you in the morning before I say goodbye.”

Satori went out towards the promise of a warm bed, leaving Shou and Tobio alone.

“You know,” Tobio mused, “I think part of the reason Kunimi is always so keen to leave is because he knows Hitoka is going to be teaching the kids about the resistance movement soon and he doesn’t want to answer all their questions.”

Hitoka had proven herself so adept at teaching Natsu that she had been promoted to royal tutor.

“You’re probably right,” Shou snorted. “Can you imagine how excited Kosuke will be when he finds out he has the leader of the resistance movement close by as an ambassador? Poor Kunimi won’t be able to get anything done for answering questions.

“He’ll probably do the same for you and war stories,” Shou went on. Tobio felt quieter.

“I haven’t fought in a war for years,” Tobio said. “We’ve had peace for ten years. I barely even remember what it was like to be a soldier. I don’t want Kosuke running off to fight in a war. I don’t want him to have that kind of blood on his hands. It’ll never leave him.”

“You sound like my mother,” Shou told him. “Omegas, always worrying about their children.”

“Your mother,” Tobio said, “made a good call letting you nowhere near a battlefield, and I stand by his call.”

“Hey!”

“He’s going to have some insane questions when Ennoshita and his crew get back from their expedition,” Shou mused. “They’ll have seen things no one else has seen. I’m going to have some insane questions for them myself.”

“We got the message that they’d arrived back at the coast a few weeks ago,” Tobio said. “It won’t be too much longer before they’ve travelled all the way back up to here. Then we’ll see if your parents’ dream is a reality.”

“Even if the stories aren’t true, I can’t wait to hear what they saw,” Shou said. “It’s a whole new world across the sea.”

“Here there be dragons,” Tobio joked.

“Hey, Takara is a little younger than Kosuke, right?” Shou asked, changing the subject rapidly.

“Yeah, she turns eight this year, why?”

“What do you think of asking Satori about arranging a marriage between the two of them?” Shou suggested.

“He’s ten,” Tobio said flatly.

“I’m not saying we’d do it right now, just that we’d talk…”

“You’re more than welcome to ask Satori about his youngest daughter’s hand in marriage. When they’re older,” Tobio said firmly. “Let them be kids for now.”

“Fine.”

“Besides, it would be Takara’s choice as well as Kosuke’s. Both sides have to agree.”

Things had changed for omegas in Karasuno in the past ten years. Something about having their queen in all but name play personal bodyguard to their king had changed how omegas, even unmated omegas, were seen in Karasuno. The only ruling work Tobio had really done had been to push for laws that protected unmated omegas, and the way the kingdom saw them had changed too. Calls of “omega slut” and the like were rare now.

Whether his children were alphas, omegas, or betas, Tobio wasn’t scared of them growing up in Karasuno like he’d been for Tooru’s unborn child so many years ago.

“Your majesties,” a page burst into the room, panting. Following close behind him was Ennoshita and his crew. “The expedition force has returned!”

Tobio’s eyes bounced from Ennoshita to the crew he’d handpicked himself for the voyage. They’d been gone for over a year, seeing gods only knew what on their journey.

Noya, who Tobio suspected had become the heart of the adventure based on what he knew about the tiny alpha, bounced forward.

“We’re back, majesties,” he said, inclining his head, eyes bright. “And do we ever have a story for you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I'd just like to say thank you to everyone who read and commented. This is the biggest project I've ever taken on and certainly the shortest amount of time I've ever taken to write something this big. This fic has over 200 comments and every single one of them is positive. You guys really kept me going on this.  
> Next up on my plans is the story of how Ushiten got together and their adventures in the north. I'll start posting chapters as soon as I can get my outline done, though not as fast as I was writing these. Jfc I don't know how I managed to write this much in less than a month.  
> As always, my tumblr is [ musicprincess655](http://www.musicprincess655.tumblr.com)


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